• New Music Reviews
• |
• Archives
• |
• News
• |
• Submissions
• |
• About
• |
• 
• |
• 

January 2025

• Bonfire: Higher Ground
• The Big Deal: Electrified
• Landfall: Wide Open Sky

December 2024

• After Lapse: Pathways
• Illusion Force: Halfana
• Powell-Payne: Voilá

November 2024

• Sunstorm: Restless Fight
• Storace: Crossfire
• Voodoo Circle: Hail To The King
• Lionville: Supernatural
• Starchaser: Into The Great Unkown
• Empires Of Eden: Guardians Of Time
• Lonerider: Down In The Dust
• Seventh Crystal: Entity
• Neal Morse & The Resonance: No Hill For A Climber
• Beardfish: Songs For Beating Hearts
• Impellitteri: War Machine
• Brothers Of Metal: Fimbulvinter

October 2024

• Casandra's Crossing: Garden Of Earthly Delights
• DGM: Endless
• Daytona: Garder la Flamme
• Fate: Reconnect 'N Ignite
• Frost*: Life In The Wires
• Aries Descendant: From The Ashes Of Deceit
• Fans Of The Dark: Video
• Radioactive: Reset
• House Of Lords: Full Tilt Overdrive
• Cleanbreak: We Are The Fire

September 2024

• Sinner's Blood: Dark Horizons
• Serious Black: Rise Of Akhenaton
• Eclipse: Megalomanium II
• SteelCity: Reverence
• Hydra: ReHydrated
• Heartwind: III
• Gabrielle De Val and the Dragonlords: Tiger
• Find Me: Nightbound
• The Nail: The Nail
• Timeless Fairytale: A Story To Tell
• Stryper: When We Were Kings
• Phil Mogg: Moggs Motel
• Pure Reason Revolution: Coming Up To Consciousness
• Jordan Rudess: Permission To Fly

[ More Music Reviews ]

Dirty Diamonds: Let's Get Loud

Melodic Hard Rock

3.5/5.0

Website Facebook Twitter YouTube
Vanity Music Group
Words by Craig Hartranft,  07.05.2014

Following the success of their 2013 EP, Irish rockers Dirty Diamonds deliver their first full-length album with Let's Get Loud. Their music tears a page out of the book of classic melodic hard rock, sometimes with heavier metal edge.

Dirty Diamonds: into the black.

Dirty Diamonds also takes a page out the sleaze hard rock book as well, having the genre sneer, swagger, and vulgarity. You'll catch this with Against The Grain, Hell or High Water, Sex With No Strings, and ornery, in your face, Goin' Down. You might toss Wakin' Up The Neighborhood in with that bunch, but it sounds more like an old KISS song, thanks to lifting a few riffs from the band.(Vocalist Jonathon Ryan sometimes has the timbre of Paul Stanley in his voice.) Harder and heavier material comes with songs like Crash & Burn and Hell or Higher. Something of a ballad comes with Want You to Want Me, an curious conundrum when cast beside Sex With No Strings. Most every song has a sharp classic rock guitar solo, one the album's strengths. Alternatively, some songs are simply too long like the title track, which could easily have 50 seconds shaved off for more efficiency, or Wakin' Up The Neighborhood, where the tempo and delivery feels almost laborious after awhile.

Generally, however, Dirty Diamonds are not bringing anything new to the table. It's familiar territory for those of us who grew up with classic Eighties rock and our sons who are digging into our record collection. Some, however, may find the sound dated and repetitive. Nevertheless, this does not mean that Let's Get Loud is something that should be dismissed out of hand, as the band understands their chosen genre and can craft the proper songs. Check it out for yourself.

Dirty Diamonds - Let's Get Loud

Note: All Amazon advertising in this review first benefits the artist, then Craig Hartranft also receives a residual. Click, and thanks for your support.

With Let's Get Loud, Dirty Diamonds' music tears a page out of the book of classic melodic hard rock, sometimes with heavier metal edge.

Alphabetical Index

The Powell Payne project, created in 2022 is the collaboration of Mark "Penfold Powell (ex-drummer of Psycho Kiss) and Adam Payne (former vocalist of Airrace). With guitarist Adam Davies and keyboard player ... [ Read More ]