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DIESEL
Into The Fire

Escape Music (2014)
Rating: 8/10

It’s fair to say that any album featuring former Bad Company vocalist Robert Hart and FM guitarist Jim Kirkpatrick is going to be worth your time.

Diesel is a brand spanking new British rock band that also features the talents of bassist Pat Davey and drummer Jimmy Copley. And with special guests Adam Wakeman (son of the legendary Rick Wakeman) on keyboards and Steve Overland (FM, Wildlife) on backing vocals, Into The Fire boasts one supergroup you can rely on for robust and catchy tunes.

The album opens with the swaggering ‘Love Under Cover’ which begins with a driving guitar and drum and Robert Hart’s yapping vocal. This is solid, fiery rock with a dash of Hammond organ and enough suaveness to keep you rockin’ until the cows come home. The chorus is simple yet effective, but the track is bolstered by that molten guitar sound which pushes it along at quite a pace.

Diesel fuse AOR with harder-edged melodies beefed up by Hart’s vocal talents. Certainly fans of Bad Company – after Paul Rodgers first flew the nest – will lap this up, but there’s enough on offer here to please anyone who likes that no nonsense brand of mid-to-late 80s hard rock. The title track again leads in on a cool solo and Hart’s hushed tones – the drum is constant, a hurried heartbeat that builds to the pre-chorus strains and then that barked chorus of power and groove-based melody born out of a rushing organ and killer riff.

It’s fair to say that Diesel opt for consistency throughout, giving the feel of a safe yet sturdy record that is nigh on faultless and jam-packed with monster grooves. The intriguing thing about this album is that despite its simplicity as a hard rock opus and its influences (FM, Bad Company, Rainbow etc.), there is not a trace of the dated. And weirder still, it also defers away from modern dynamics, meaning that Into The Fire has a timeless feel about it. The cosier AOR elements of ‘Starting Over’ walk hand in hand with the harder ingredients which add spice to rockers such as ‘Bitter & Twisted’, with its powerful vocal and pounding drums.

Elsewhere, there is the 70s-influenced swagger of ‘Brand New Day’ with its hints of Free, while the uptempo jaunt of ‘Let’s Take The Long Way Home’ is uplifting as a slice of contemporary AOR. None of us care about the rather basic structures used to make this hard rock opus. This is how rock is meant to be at times – the sort of music you don’t have to think too much about but instead can just take in wherever you may be.

‘Told You So’ continues the swagger with its soulful, hip-shaking chorus of tambourine and bouncing organ, but again it’s the guitar of Jim Kirkpatrick which elevates this track above the norm. The funkier strands of ‘What You See Ain’t What You Get’ slot nicely alongside the Led Zeppelin-ish strut of ‘Skin & Bone’, while album closer ‘Coming Home’ is a warm dose of flaky, floating whispered rock.

Diesel mix things up well and throw them all into the fire (excuse the dreary pun!), the result being a warm yet edgy little record that makes for easy listening throughout.

Neil Arnold

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