If Murphy’s Law could apply to any band, Britain’s Dirty Deeds
\nwould probably have their picture placed next to the definition in
\nthe dictionary. First, they launched into their debut American tour
\nsupporting Iron Maiden, only to see the bulk of the tour cancelled.
\nThen, they had their debut disc
\nDanger Of Infection<\/i> scheduled for release on Velvel, only to
\nsee that label fold before it could see the light of day.<\/p>\n
Now, with a label deal secured and their second disc
\nReal World<\/i> out on the market,
\nDanger Of Infection<\/i> is finally seeing the light of day in
\nthe States – and while it has some great moments on it, the disc
\nalso shows a band still working on getting their own unique sound
\ntogether. (Full disclosure: I’m working off the original copy
\nreleased on Beast Records – it’s now available in the States on
\nSanctuary.)<\/p>\n
I’ve had the pleasure of seeing the band – lead
\nvocalist\/guitarist Pete Franklin, lead guitarist Barry Fitzgibbon,
\nbassist Tony Newton and drummer Dave Cavill – perform on one of
\nthose Iron Maiden show dates, and like numerous other bands, Dirty
\nDeeds is a group whose true power lies in the live performance. The
\nmusic takes on a life of its own when played before a screaming
\nthrong, and the energy is unbelievable. It would be hard for any
\nband to translate that power into the studio setting.<\/p>\n
Yet try they do, as they power through 11 cuts of vintage-style
\nhard rock that focuses on the melody more than the riff – a nice
\nchange of pace. Tracks like “Nothing To Lose,” “Call Of The Wild”
\nand “I’m No Angel” show the promise that this type of rock music
\nhas kept dormant while waiting for the commercial rebirth of the
\ngenre. Frankly, it’s good to hear it again.<\/p>\n
But
\nDanger Of Infection<\/i> takes a little time building up to the
\nmother lode on the album. Tracks like “Cry Out,” “Dividing Line”
\nand “Promised Land” are by no means terrible, but they don’t have
\nthe same kind of qualities that would draw the listener in like
\nflies to a no-pest strip as the killer tracks do. Still, with
\nrepeat listens, even these tracks show some inert qualities that
\nyou won’t get on a cursory listen.<\/p>\n
If there’s anything that is underutilized on
\nDanger Of Infection<\/i>, it’s the use of harmony vocals. All
\nfour members of Dirty Deeds contribute some kind of vocals to the
\nalbum, and when they go to harmonies, it seems to work pretty well
\n– without compromising any of the music’s power. I’d like to see
\nwhat they could accomplish with a little more harmony thrown into
\nthe mix. (Maybe they did on
\nReal World<\/i>; at the time of this writing, it was still in the
\n“to be reviewed” pile here at the Pierce Memorial Archives.)<\/p>\n
\nDanger Of Infection<\/i> might have taken forever to hit these
\nshores, but there are moments on it that prove it was worth the
\nwait. But if you’re expecting a musical epidemic to pour out of
\nyour speakers, you might be disappointed a little bit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6296],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-36554","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-dirty-deeds","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36554"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36554"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}