Every artist is a product of their influences, with some bands it’s very subtle in their sound, But with others like Madhouse they wear those influences on their sleeve. The influence of older bands like Ratt, Motley Crue, Def Leppard, and Skid Row is front and center in their sound, but fused with the Sleazy and grittier sound of modern bands like Crashdiet, Confess, and Catalano.
Madhouse have released three albums to date: 2019’s Money talks bullshot walks and 2021’s Bad habits and as good as the other two are, Down ‘N’ Dirty marks a real step forward for this band.
The album starts out with the title track which is for my money one of the best rock songs released this year, it’s very heavily Ratt meets Catalano, hard rocking riffs groove throughout the song that ease up for an absolutely tasty melodic breakdown before kicking into a great guitar solo, the vocals sneer and the gang vocals add extra punch without seeming excessive. Absolute perfection of a track.
“Hard Luck” is very pyromania era Def Leppard with a dash of Ratt, a hard hitting mid tempo rocker. Singer Tommy Lovelace channels the higher end of Joe Elliott’s vocals pretty well here.
Can you ever go wrong with cowbell in a rock song? Not in my opinion and “kiss and tell” has it throughout in a very Flesh and Blood era poison sounding track, minus the vocals which sound somewhere between Roxxi Catalano and Steven Pearcy. This track is vintage early sunset strip 80’s hard rock.
“Passion Killer” sounds very influenced by the harder side of Winger and again slightly reminiscent of Ratt, another great melodic hard rocker with an excellent guitar solo.
“This is horrorwood” is a bit cocked and loaded era L.A. Guns meets murderdolls and in keeping with horror themed song traditions it’s got movie samples in it.
“In the doghouse ” is very faster pussycat influenced with a dash of warrant, the guitars in this song have so much swagger and groove to it that would definitely get the audience moving if it was added to their live set.
“You and I against the world” is a decent enough power ballad that somewhat sounds like the softer side of motley crue and yet a bit Sleazier, there’s moments when he’s hitting the high notes in this song that Tommy sounds like Dave Lepard from Crashdiet.
“Kung fu holiday” steps away from the sunset strip influences to go straight up modern hard rock, I can’t really compare this song to anyone though, but it rocks!
“Much II much” sounds like a mixture of Ratt and second coming era Shotgun Messiah with a dash of Catalano.
“Love is blind” is very early Ratt meets early motley crue, this song could’ve fit on either of those bands first few albums. The playing here is excellent, the vocals flow and the gang vocals add to it, definitely one of my favorites on the album.
“You can lead a whore” starts out with clean electric strumming that slightly sounded like they were going the direction of firehouse’s good acoustics before going full on into Warrant territory, but harder and sleazier.
“Antihero” is very Ratt meets Warrant, This song is the sort of high energy, hard rocking song that you really want out of a band of this style.
The guitar playing on this album by Mikky Stixx and Thommy Black is excellent, these guys have great chemistry with each other and the rhythms and leads on these songs are a real highlight of the record.
This is one of those albums that you could use to make a case for the modern scene’s legitimacy to someone who only listens to the old bands, in a blind test I don’t think they would know Madhouse isn’t an early 80s hard rock band. They don’t sound like they’re trying to imitate anyone, though as you can see above there’s comparisons to be made, they just are naturals with that sound and Down ‘N’ Dirty is proof of that.
7.5/10