Liar Thief Bandit – Diamonds Review

Every now and then we receive a band with one foot in the 1980s AOR in a even lighter version. I’ll elaborate. 1980s AOR has a foot in Metal music but it’s a lighter version with hits to be played in big arenas as the label says. So, the prone to songs with big choruses and the riffs with major chords to have a bigger impact. I could quote some bands as Survivor, Journey, and Boston just to name a few. The kind of music that reached big hits in the 1980s. No kidding, those bands sold millions of records and brought thousands of people to the arenas around the world. Back then, metallers used to look at them with some disdain. I did, but secretly I used to have them recorded in my cassete tapes. Nowadays they are under the huge and generous umbrella of Classic Rock a label that I don’t agree or disagree.

Well, Liar Thief Bandit with “Diamonds” have some of this sonancy. It’s some kind of “happy” music. After listening to the album for the third time, I noticed that there are some Def Leppard influences in it. I guess it’s the way the songs were written. I mean, the instrumentals. In fact, Def Leppard were heavier than AOR bands obviously as a NWOBHM band. Welcoming track “Peace with Distaster” and “Ain’t Fit to Live Here” give me this feeling. To be more precise, it’s the twin guitars that address to the guitar duo Steve Clark and Pete Willis used to play like this in the classic “On Through the Night.” On the hand, tittle track “Diamonds” have some “happy” vocals and some kind of AOR instrumentals. It’s hard to label it because in the late 1970s and early 1980s there were lots of bands as Blue Oÿester Cult, Ted Nugent, and others that their sonancy wasn’t that heavy but not that light. They were in a kind of a limbo metally speaking. It’s funny how in a track like “The Art of Losing Battles” the feeling is that the instrumentals are much heavier than the vocals. An AOR common ground to be precise. I’d say it’s a nervous and angry rock’n’roll. Maybe the band gets satisfied with this labeling as well as some bands still have some prejudice against being labelled as Metal. Ok, from where I’m standing, Liar Thief Bandit aren’t Metal. AOR is a good labelling.

Right, to me this kind of music is no secret. I’m used to it as it was the heaviest thing it was possible to listen on the radio. I’ll admit I do have a sympathy for it. “Diamonds” was a pleasant album to listen to and it took me four times of listening to get to write about them. C’est la vie.

Liar Thief Bandit “Diamonds” will be released on September 30th via The Sign Records.

Track Listing:

  1. Peace with Distaster
  2. Better Days
  3. Harm Reduction
  4. Ain’t Fit to Live Here
  5. Diamonds
  6. The Art of Losing Battles
  7. Send Me Home

Watch “Diamonds (Are Made under Pressure)” official audio here: