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Diablo Red: Vol. II - a statue of Mary with bullhorns
09/04/09 || GardensTale
When listening to this dirty fucker, you can almost smell the whiskey and cigarette smoke coming from the speakers. You can hear the growling trucks arriving outside the sleazy bar in the southern states in the guitars, the packing thunderheads in the sky in the bass, and the guy who is about to punch some drunk chick in the cunt while yelling at her in the singer’s gravelly and worn voice. Enough imagery for you, fuckos? I thought so.
Diablo Red is still a very minor band, which is a fucking shame considering the crap that does get on major labels. In 2002 they released their sophomore album, and it’s southern metal at the top of its bill. The guitars are dry, crackling and gravelly, churning out its dirty hooks with reckless abandon on songs like “Duster” and the title track, while taking a sluggish and pounding turn on “Black River Revival” and “Thorn”, topping it off with a most rotten and dirty blues song at “Backroad Blues”.
Robert Ulysses Simon Hare (what kind of cock puts that on the credits? I’d have preferred a nickname like Peniseater over this) manages to sound like an even more ruined version of Lemmy. Yeah, for that he probably ate some razorblade shards, or had a cactus shoved down his throat. Or a very hairy penis. But it suits the redneck vibe that the entire album thrives on.
The production is perfect for an album like this, dirty, muddy, but with a very audible bass and enough room to have the guitars actually get their point across. The nice balance between fast and slow songs makes sure it doesn’t bore you to tears halfway through.
In the end, southern metal albums stand or fall with the amount of charm that they manage to conjure, and if I haven’t yet convinced you that Diablo Red succeed completely in that category you should read the intro again. And actually interpret it this time, fuckers.
8 bottles of whiskey out of 10 on the wall.
- Information
- Released: 2006
- Label: Rock ‘N’ Roll Reparations Records
- Website: Diablo Red MySpace
- Band
- Robert Ulysses Simon Hare: guitar, vocals
- Billy Diablo: guitar, vocals
- Brett Savory: drums
- Paul Mancuso: bass
- Tracklist
- 01. The Truth
- 02. Duster
- 03. The Burial
- 04. Rusty Nail
- 05. Statue of Mary With Bullhorns
- 06. Bagota
- 07. Local Oaf Breaks Pipe
- 08. Black Water Revival
- 09. Thorn
- 10. Backroad Blues
- 11. Hyena
