This is Girlschool's 14th studio album. I somehow missed the past 30-some years of the band's career, so this came as a surprise. Needless to say, it's been a while since I heard material from the band.

You have to love the album title that works in their 45th anniversary. There's been a lot of old-school metal revival bands, a lot of them very good, but it's always cool to see a band that was actually there at the time still releasing albums, especially when they didn't feel the need to jump on some modern trend of the day and just stick to their guns. The songs on WTFortyfive? sound very much like the early '80s, and even the more modern production job doesn't take away that NWOBHM-ish raw vibe. The music is accessible, melodic and catchy, but for the most part it's actually pretty heavy and crunchy stuff. Fans of late '70s and very early '80s NWOBHM bands should definitely dig this stuff as it often sounds like something they would have been released back then. The songs are very much in the vein of just about any of those hard-rocking albums that get people to sing along and even dance (I don't do either as that's just too dangerous for anyone in my immediate vicinity). It's a fun, rocking album where Girlschool what they do best, and that's the way I like it. I would have rated this a little higher if not for some vocal melodies that really went differently than what I expected and that kind of throws me off every time even after several listens. The album ends on a cover of Motörhead's "Born to Raise Hell" featuring Biff Byford, Phil Campbell and Duff McKagan, a good fit for an album mostly filled with songs that are bound to get people going.