There’s a really dirty, punky sound to Diamond Rexx’s ‘The Answer’ the opening song from new album ‘Psych Ward’ a tale of a dark city and even more grit but less furor under the nails of the dodgy lyrics to ‘Love is Pain’ but those two songs pretty much lay out what you get from Chicago’s Diamond Rexx and band that soared briefly in 1986 with the major label debut ‘Land of the Damned’ and sported amongst their ranks D’Molls’ guitarist S.S. Priest and the animated ball of energy that is singer Nasti Habits.
Well the original band is back for this one – the full-length follow up to the 2016 single ‘Dead’ which includes the new single ‘Love is Pain’ and a cover of Motorhead’s ‘Ace of Spades’ (you’re really playing with fire when you cover Motorhead).
‘Teenage Refugee’ is spiky teenage rebellion 70’s Punk, spat out like the Pistols and really that’s what you get here, a spike of Metal, a slather of Punk and in all honesty not really a lot of ‘Glam’. And that always really was Diamond Rexx, they may have looked like they hailed from the Sunset Strip but they always sounded like East Coast Punks playing Metal in the vein of W.A.S.P. or Raven.
And if you like that opening then you should find a lot in the rest of the album. Its chunky, it’s gritty and on songs like ‘Ride’ they get it just right with a simple slab of biker rock that will bring a smile to the face. Single ‘Dead’ is more Metallic and just as effective. This will definitely hit the mark with some but maybe not everyone’s cup of tea.