Diamond Lane-Save this city

2008
Self-produced

As I listened to the opening riffs of Diamond Lane's "Bite the bullet" I suddenly saw flashes of 1990 in my head. I think this song triggered memories of hard rock from that time in that there were some hard rock bands who stepped up the heaviness level just enough to make you notice them. At that time I thought that was a good sign and that metal was going to rule the 90's like it did in the 80's. Of course I was dead wrong on that however I think that I have a better handle on what's going on with Diamond Lane's four song EP. The two founding members of this sourthern California based band are vocalist Brandon Baumann (22 ) and guitarist Jarret Reis (23). So these guys are fairly young yet this album very much sounds like early 1990's hard rock with some leanings towards Skid Row on the heavier tracks and a touch of Bon Jovi on "Lonely Road". They also put forth enough of their own ideas to make me think they are on to something as well. The opening riffs are big and undeniably tight plus the vocals are solid all the way through. I think the approach is different enough from a lot of the other young hard rock bands pouring out of every crevice these days. The only fault I had was a concern that 2/3 or so through every song except the ballad they seem to kind of run out of ideas. Not so much that it's repetitive, but more that they to need a little more of something to keep the song going throughout the entire length of the track. That didn't keep me from enjoying this album, but I think it's something that can be the difference between being good and being great and right now this band is in that first category. According to their Myspace page they have a full length album titled "World Without Heroes" slated for a late 2008 release. They are also looking for a 2nd guitarist, a bass player and a drummer to round out the line-up. So my hope is that they working on fine tuning their songs and find the rights people to fill in those spots.

http://www.myspace.com/diamondlane