The Dead Daisies – Holy Ground Review

My dear child of the night, this 2021 is a very promising year from the albums I’ve heard so far. I know it’s too early, but the quality stuff I’ve been hearing is fantastic though the variety hasn’t been so large. Extreme Metal albums were very few for now and I know they are the cherry of the cake of Metal music.

Here I got The Dead Daisies with “Holy Ground” which impresses from head to toe. I guess much more than 2019’s “Locked and Loaded” that we had the pleasure to review. Then they were a pretty much Heavy Rock piece. The thing is that now there are a lot of genre plot twists with the band going from the Saxon’s NWOBHM to Ten Year After’s Heavy Rock. This is so maybe due to the addition and welcoming of legendary bassist and vocalist Glenn Hugues, a man that makes it rain, my child of the night. If memory serves me right the name dead daisies may be taken from an obscure TV show that ran a few years ago and it was about a guy who could with one touch revive dead things or take the life away from them. But I guess this wasn’t the inspiration for the band name. “Holy Ground” is an album name that remembers a lot the mighty and legendary Saxon so does opening and title track “Holy Ground (Shake the Memory)” whose guitar riff impresses of such beauty, simplicity and effect. Following track “Like No Other (Bassline)” keeps the Saxonian feeling with a great bassline as the name says. The same happens with “Come Alive” that is more cadenced and heavy as hell. Three tracks to bang the head at large and forget for a moment about this sad and lonely and pathetic little planet we live on. From then on The Dead Daisies take Ten Year After’s Heavy Rock direction with some touches of some Hard Rock as in “Bustle And Flow.” I mentionedTen Year After not only because of the same picks and similar catch, but also due to the heaviness the band puts in each song of the album. “Bustle And Flow” mix gentle and kind textures with heavy stuff and it goes very well this way. As I said before the guitar riffing killing machine gets better and better track after track with heavy and delicious short and effective phrases. Take “Saving Grace” for instance.

The Dead Daisies band members, or collaborators if you may, names include an amazing collective of players that includes John Corabi, Marco Mendoza, Richard Fortus, Dizzy Reed, Frank Ferrer, Darryl Jones, Tommy Clufetos, Charley Drayton and Jon Stevens amongst others. They’ve also shared the stage with some of the biggest names in Rock including Kiss, Guns N‘ Roses, Scorpions, Aerosmith, Bad Company, Whitesnake, ZZ Top and the Hollywood Vampires. A name to respect, my fan, and you have to agree with me.

If you are in the mood of really good music, “Holy Ground” is the right choice for you.

The Dead Daisies “Holy Ground” will be released on January 22nd via The Dead Daisies Pty Ltd. / SPV.

Track Listing:

  1. Holy Ground (Shake the Memory)
  2. Like No Other (Bassline)
  3. Come Alive
  4. Bustle and Flow
  5. My Fate
  6. Chosen and Justified
  7. Saving Grace
  8. Unspoken
  9. 30 Days in the Hole
  10. Righteous Days
  11. Far Away

Watch “Holy Ground (Shake the Memory)” official video here: