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DIRTY TRICKS
Bright Lights, Big City EP

Hoove Child (2021)
Rating: 7/10

Now here’s a turn up for the books – a driving, swaggering melodic metal album that feels authentic.

According to the record label website, Bright Lights, Big City contains “four head bangin’, fist pumpin’ street metal anthems for fans of classic 80s heavy metal” in the vein of “Saxon, Accept, Oz and W.A.S.P.”. Now, that’s some company to be compared to, but where so many modern metal acts seem so desperate to sound like the 80s to the point of falsity, Los Angeles-based Dirty Tricks do indeed live up to their “street metal” description.

This is rough ‘n’ ready melodic metal that glints with steely aplomb and rattles with brooding heaviness. Just check out the street level chugs of opener ‘Cut Out The Lights’ – this one is straight out of the early Mötley Crüe book of dark, sleazy riffage. My only issue being that the vocals are in fact a tad tepid, lacking any real snarl, whereas the music smirks with greasy arrogance.

The guitar tone here rules proceedings. But let’s also give a round of applause for the kicking percussion and that bubbling undercurrent of bass. Damn, if this has emerged circa 83/84 we’d be flicking through the pages of Metal Forces and eager to snap this one up.

The design, even from its retro cover, is simple yet effective with that white hot guitar streak and even those handclaps. These guys haven’t been dressed by their mums to appear more metal… they are metal. It flows through their veins as evident on ‘New Rock, Old Rock’; a crisp chugger bringing to mind early Great White while drifting into Saxon territory.

I do wish for more beef and conviction in the vocals, and as it stands this contradiction kind of means the EP can’t fully breathe. There’s nothing worse than hearing a grimy riff only for the vocals to drift by with no effect.

‘Walk With Me’ has a nice catchy glint to its introduction, with flecks of old Ratt and that sleazy L.A. scene. “I see her dancing at a local bar” the vocalist croons, but I need to be convinced he was there. His tone just drops beneath the wave of fiery axe work, then suddenly he finds an extra level and I’m left wondering why for the most part he just didn’t turn up. Am I suggesting Dirty Tricks get a new vocalist? Maybe… but if not then this guy needs to find his voice because in this day and age bands need a bit of oomph to impress me.

The songs though are very good. They evoke images of crackly demo tapes given out on the sidewalks of Hollywood circa 1985, and as the title track struts in with that moody riffage I’m moved by the lyrics: “Cold streets, no sunlight… being stuck in a rut… I need more, my life is like a chore… same people, doin’ nothin’”. But I need a vocalist who rams such desperation down my throat, because while the instruments are moving in the right direction the lack of beef in the vocal delivery irks me with each repeated listen.

So, while Dirty Tricks have that musical edge, they are not the full package as yet. Hopefully, given time, they’ll bloom into a fully fledged swaggering rock giant, but this one, through all its positives, needs work.

Neil Arnold

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