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Dirty Shirley: Dirty Shirley
Dirty Shirley - 2020 Self-titled Debut Album Art Work

Dirty Shirley: Dirty Shirley

Melodic Metal Rock
4.0/5.0

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Frontiers Music
Words: Craig Hartranft
Added: 15.01.2020 | Released: 24.01.2020

Dirty Shirley is a new Frontiers Music project featuring Croatian vocalist Dino Jelusic and American guitarist George Lynch. You will recall Jelusic from his time with Trans-Siberian Orchestra, but also his own band Animal Drive which released Bite last year. Legendary guitarist George Lynch needs no introduction.

Dirty Shirley - Click For Larger Image

Jelusic & Lynch

Essentially what you have with Dirty Shirley is melodic metal with hard rock groove and powered by Lynch's always creative and spry guitar work. If you're fan of Lynch's guitar style, you will love this album. After this most songs here are simply hard and heavy rockers with thrilling guitar solos.

Honestly, I was somewhat worried when Jelusic was mentioned as the vocalist. Within the Animal Drive album he seemed harsh and screamo, but mostly overwhelmed by the heavy metal. Dirty Shirley is a different story. Perhaps it's merely the production (handled by Lynch, mixing by Alessandro Del Vecchio), but Jelusic sounds much better, and rises above the music.

As for the songs, as mentioned earlier, everyone is basically a Lynch guitar clinic. But heavy rockers come with I Disappear, Here Comes The King, Last Man Standing, and Escalator, which bumps up the hard rock groove and drops in some subtle blues flavor. You might find some of the same within Higher and Dirty Blues. The Voice Of A Soul is something of a heavy ballad. The closer, Grand Master, is the odd song of the bunch, mostly featuring Jelusic's voice mixed with acoustic guitar (or dobro? or both?) and brisk toms. But expect the unexpected, and creative, from George Lynch. In the end, despite some initial reservations about Dino Jelusic's vocal participation, I found Dirty Shirley's debut album to be a creative and entertaining album of George Lynch guitar-driven melodic metal rock. Recommended.


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The Bottom Line

Despite some initial reservations about Dino Jelusic's vocal participation, I found Dirty Shirley's debut album to be a creative and entertaining album of George Lynch guitar-driven melodic metal rock. Recommended.

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