{"id":35663,"date":"2013-12-20T08:51:39","date_gmt":"2013-12-20T13:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=35663"},"modified":"2014-02-08T08:39:25","modified_gmt":"2014-02-08T13:39:25","slug":"trucker-diablo-songs-of-iron-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2013\/trucker-diablo-songs-of-iron-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Trucker Diablo | Songs of Iron<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Mark Allen<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"TruckerIf you relish red-blooded hard rock with a southern-fried swagger, prepare to have your ears steamrolled like an 18-wheeler flattening an armadillo. It has been said that the devil has all the good music. If so, then this new album from Trucker Diablo is surely populating Ol\u2019 Scratch\u2019s iPod.<\/p>\n

Songs of Iron<\/em> begs to be max-cranked at a Texas monster truck rally with a cold beer in one hand and a corndog in the other. It\u2019s whiskey-whipped, sweat-soaked, testosterone-torqued, hot-rodding down the highway, long live rock \u2018n\u2019 roll kind of music. In other words, high-octane fun designed to be played loud and proud and absent lofty pretensions.<\/p>\n

You could argue the band\u2019s sound is simplistic and you would not be wrong. Big guitars, copious power chords, sizzling solos, crunchy rhythms, catchy choruses \u2026 it\u2019s all present, slathered in southern sleaze like barbecue sauce on a spitted pig. But that is exactly the point. Sometimes you don\u2019t reinvent the wheel; you just make a damn good wheel.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t hear a souped-up Skynyrd blended with Black Label Society and Blackstone Cherry, then you\u2019re not paying attention. Sure, all the songs sort of sound the same, but when they sound this good, who gives a Dixie damn? A man having a threesome with identical twin supermodels does not whine that both girls look alike, he just lays back and enjoys himself. Same principle applies here.<\/p>\n

The band is at their best when roaming in radio-friendly territory. To many hard rock fans, \u201cradio-friendly\u201d is a dirty word, akin to saying \u201cmotherf*cker\u201d in the midst of Sunday Morning Mass. But in Trucker Diablo\u2019s defense, they manage to do radio-friendly without sacrificing their balls in the process. Even their power ballad, \u201cMaybe You\u2019re the One,\u201d boasts a heavier vibe than, say, Firehouse or Winger.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, \u201cRed Light On\u201d roars out of the gate like a top fuel dragster, hammering it home with a heavy-hitting groove and body-moving swagger. \u201cBulldozer\u201d is a big bruiser of a southern-metal anthem packed with power and clenched-fist aggression, as evidenced by lyrics like, \u201cYou\u2019re gonna light \u2018em up \/ and I\u2019m gonna knock them down.\u201d The most \u201880s-esque song title award goes to \u201cI Wanna Party With You\u201d and no surprise, there is a hint or two of hair metal lacing the track. You can easily picture this tune being sung by Poison or Cinderella, bands that excelled at merging bad boy blues with pretty boy pop-metal.<\/p>\n

Though hailing from Northern Ireland, Trucker Diablo could not sound more American if they chugged a keg of Budweiser, gluttonized a bucket of extra-crispy fried chicken, and topped it off with shots of Jack Daniels while sitting on the rusty tailgate of a mud-spattered Ford Bronco with oversized tires and wearing a rebel flag bandana. Songs of Iron sports some bare knuckle, hard-brawling muscle and will kick your ass in all the right ways.<\/p>\n

Genre: Hard Rock, Southern Rock<\/p>\n

Band:
\nTom Harte (guitar, vocals)
\nSimon Haddock (guitar, vocals)
\nGlenn Harrison (bass)
\nTerry Crawford (drums)<\/p>\n

Track Listing
\n1. Red Light On
\n2. Year of the Truck
\n3. The Rebel
\n4. Drive
\n5. Not So Superstar
\n6. The Streets Run Red
\n7. Lie To Me
\n8. Maybe You\u2019re the One
\n9. Bulldozer
\n10. Rock Hallelujah
\n11. Highway Radio
\n12. When\u2019s It Gonna Rain
\n13. Shame On You
\n14. I Wanna Party With You<\/p>\n

Label: Ripple Music (US) \/ Bad Reputation (FRA)<\/p>\n

Webpage: www.facebook.com\/truckerdiablo<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 8.5\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mark Allen – Senior Columnist — If you relish red-blooded hard rock with a southern-fried swagger, prepare to have your ears steamrolled like an 18-wheeler flattening an armadillo. It has been said that the […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":35664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8704],"tags":[8503,2317,1103,8502,8501,3798,8500],"class_list":{"0":"post-35663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2013","8":"tag-bad-reputation","9":"tag-cd-review","10":"tag-hard-rock","11":"tag-ripple-music","12":"tag-songs-of-iron","13":"tag-southern-rock","14":"tag-trucker-diablo"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}