Trucker Diablo: The Devil Rhythm

Sleazy blues rock with plenty of grunt.

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Purveyors of gutsy, slightly dishevelled butch-rock, this Irish four-piece (recent tour buddies of Black Stone Cherry) offer the musical equivalent of a bacon sandwich – unrefined and at times in danger of falling apart, but fundamentally tasty.

Trucker Diablo’s debut embraces beer, girls and enough testosterone to submerge a small country. Sleazy blues rawk and distorted power chords are down and very dirty – check out Thin Lizzy frontman Ricky Warwick’s contribution to Juggernaut – with particularly appealing openings and solos in Dirty Love and the nicely Texas-y Voodoo.

Too often, though, such promising elements drift off, and the raucous/gently hammered vocal schtick starts to wear a little thin. That said, it is difficult not to find some joy in four very manly men bellowing ‘BIG TRUCK!’ (and something profound about ‘burrrning’ and ‘wheels turrrning’).

Unrefined bacon sarnie music, yes, but with a sense of urgency and musicianship that stops them sliding into dozy, sludge-rock, saturated-fat territory.

Polly Glass
Deputy Editor, Classic Rock

Polly is deputy editor at Classic Rock magazine, where she writes and commissions regular pieces and longer reads (including new band coverage), and has interviewed rock's biggest and newest names. She also contributes to Louder, Prog and Metal Hammer and talks about songs on the 20 Minute Club podcast. Elsewhere she's had work published in The Musician, delicious. magazine and others, and written biographies for various album campaigns. In a previous life as a women's magazine junior she interviewed Tracey Emin and Lily James – and wangled Rival Sons into the arts pages. In her spare time she writes fiction and cooks.