Quick plays: DIRTY THRILLS, STEELHEART, SHAKRA

DIRTY THRILLS Heavy Living Frontiers [Release date 15.09.17]

Despite their name Dirty Thrills are not a sleaze rock band, instead they draw from the musical well of 60′s/70′s rock giants Led Zep and Bad Company, to produce a big, hard rocking blues sound.

Their main problem is that the Rival Sons have beat them to top of the pile in this sort of sound, although the Dirty Thrills have some special musical moments like on the slow and brooding ‘Lonely Soul’. Then we have vocalist Louis James going all Robert Plant/ ‘Whole Lotta Love’ on ‘[interlude]‘. He has powerful vocal perfect to sit atop the pounding rhythm section and guitar wails of Jack Fawdry’s playing.

Dirty Thrills aren’t bad at all, they just leave you wishing it had a few real stand out songs. ***

Review by Jason Ritchie

STEELHEART Through The Worlds of Shadows Frontiers [Release date 15.09.17]

Steelheart started out in 1990 and had some initial success in the US and Japan, before grunge came along. Since then they have released a couple of albums and appeared at last year’s Rockingham festival. This is band’s first new album since 2008, although when you say band it is in fact vocalist and sole remaining original member Miljenko Matijevic – he wrote all the songs and produced the album.

Miljenko Matijevic has a Robert Plant like wail that fair blows the speakers at times – listen to album opener ‘Stream Line Savings’ for proof. He also pens lyrics that would make David Coverdale blush, like on the heavy riffing ‘My Dirty Girl’.

The ballads are top notch it has to be said. ‘Lips Of Rain’ and ‘I’m So In Love With You’ each have a piano that provides a subtle backdrop to Miljenko Matijevic’s singing, with strings adding to the atmosphere on ‘Lips Of Rain’. Shows there is more to him and the Steelheart sound than hard rock songs led by his screaming vocals.

Those after the Steelheart sound of the band’s first couple of albums may feel short changed, however give it a chance as the album is a ‘grower’. ***

Review by Jason Ritchie

SHAKRA Snakes & Ladders AFM Records [Release date 10.11.17]

Shakra return with their second album since original vocalist Mark Fox re-joined the band back in 2015.

It is business as usual on this one, plenty of the band’s trademark hard rockers like ‘Cassandra’s Curse’ – an album stand out – and ‘I Will Rise Again’, riffs aplenty on this one. ‘Open Water’ gives the band a little pause being a decent ballad, whilst ‘The End Of Days’ features a rousing chorus and something a little different from the rest of the album.

Not a bad album, although Shakra always seem to be in the shadow of fellow Swiss hard rockers Gotthard, both in terms of success and quality of their songs. One for the fans of the band for definite, just not sure it will win them many new ones. ***

Review by Jason Ritchie

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

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Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024

In this sequence we play ‘The Best of 2024′ GRTR! reviewer selections

Featured Albums w/c 9 December 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2024 (Singer Songwriter)