Do you ever wonder whatever happened to early 1980s tight playing hard rock bands like April Wine, Triumph, Red Rider, and Golden Earring? Most of us aren’t sure either. But, their DNA lives on in numerous local bands whose members came of age during their heyday. Plaistow, New Hampshire based Diamond Edge is one such local band. With their debut CD The Edge Of The Stone, this Granite State hard rock trio showcase their knowledge of that kind of clever, quirky changes and brisk interaction.
Opening track “Double Take” is a band boast about how this band catches people by surprise by exceeding their audience’s expectation. The trio offers plenty of guitar chords, bass chunk, and drum fills. Tricia Dovidio has a nice high voice that mirrors all of those earlier bands that had male singers whose range reached into the stratosphere. Bruce Dovido plays a feisty lead guitar phrase that reflects his influences.
“Most Wanted Man” showcases drummer Rik Hooper tossing off a bevy of fun drum fills. The two Dovidio’s have fun filling in the open spaces around Hooper’s myriad of fills. The two move their bass and guitar lines around the drums with a careful finesse with Tricia Dovidio injecting her vocal lines with a hard rock belter’s coolness.
Bruce Dovido commences “Back In The Day” with a sly, smoldering guitar phrase. He repeats his phrase after each plaintive vocal assertion by Tricia Dovidio. The trio fall smoothly into a catchy chorus which grabs ear, especially with she sings, briefly, without accompaniment. One can feel the anger and frustration of a love that once burned as firmly and brightly as this flaming guitar line.
“Extreme Velocity” is exactly what its title portends. The trio, locked into a tight groove, move with a deliberate speed. This carries the listener along with a force of nature. Sudden stop-restart changes push the listener into an even more intense rock experience. Tricia Dovidio moves through this tune like a tiger lady, with sudden moves, to land in the right spot in the right time.
Title track “The Edge Of The Stone” features an eerie synth line slinking around in the backdrop as the band plays an alluring acoustic guitar intro before getting more knobby and rumbly. The band then tightly rock out in carefully measured amounts of force, making this one move at an epic pace, just enough motion of the huge sound coming at us at once. A flinty lead guitar phrase penetrates the soundscape with a startling high pitched cry and Tricia Dovidio does some of her best vocal work here, riding from mid range firmness to a high pitched soar.
“Pity Party” mocks the attitude of people who don’t know how to or want to pick themselves up. Driving rock and empowered vocal sustains keep this one in anthem territory. The trio here is tight, knobby, and moving at a breakneck pace.
“I Didn’t Hear You Right” is a dandy of a down tempo piece. Dovidio captures the sudden feeling of being rejected out of the blue by someone she thought she was loved by. Her voice expresses the loneliness of being displaced. She also expresses the strength of someone who can express it in independent manner. The guitar, bass, and drums ripple with forlorn detachment beneath her, furthering the emotive resonance of this song.
“Who Is The Fool” contains a hint of menace in the brisk guitar work and in Tricia Dovidio’s edgy vocal line. She’s calling out someone in grand fashion and you can hear it in every measure. Her one word shout-chorus moves things along with punch after her attitude and her trio’s punchy delivery have already managed to keep the listener in her grip. Adding that extra kick or extra twist is one of this trio’s best techniques.
“Hard Road Back To Innocence” finds Dovidio making a soft, whispery appeal to the listener. She keeps this song conversational, like she’s talking right into your ear. Moving into the trio’s brisker pace, the uptempo portions of this song have that chase scene urgency, their racing sound taking corners on two wheels before going on. Bruce Dovidio presses out some fine brittle guitar lines too.
This Plaistow, New Hampshire-based trio close out their debut CD with “I’m Onto You,” another anthem rocker about independence. Tricia Dovido sings of rising above the expectations of men who don’t think on a high enough level to know they are transparent to wiser women. Infectious guitar riffs, a buoyant lead vocal, and a goodly amount of drum fills keep this song beautifully afloat. It has a lofty feeling that makes the listener believe in the song’s message.
Diamond Edge have much to be proud of here. They keep their music alive with energy, kick, drive. While their lyrics remain simple and the production work could’ve been a notch better, these three musicians know what they want to do and mostly know how to do it. They will certainly take a higher step up in visibility with this recording.
Their CD Release Party is this Saturday, April 14 at Sayde’s at 136 Cluff Crossing Road in Salem, New Hampshire at 8:00 p.m.
https://www.facebook.com/diamondedgeband/
