The Armored Saint guitarist, Jeff Duncan and his brothers, Shawn and Matt are here with their first full release, Volume 1. 3 years after their first E.P. Mood Swings, DC4 are back with fresh groovy hard rock sounds and funky mood.
Volume 1 is the album you will want to listen when your day is really bad. Lively guitars and rhythms will cheer you up and make you want to smile all the time. Nevertheless this album is not your average funky rock music. It's an original, heavy rock album written by professional musicians who love what they do. Full of feelings and energy, it will surely make your day.
Jeff Duncan is doing a very good job on vocals (sounding a bit like Bruce Dickinson in Balls to Picasso), adding a lot to the songs. Sometimes passionate, sometimes rough, he gives the exact volume each song needs. Guitars are solid without babbling much with useless endless solos, while the rhythm section supports everything well, but without getting much out of the typical heavy rock levels.
The songs may sound sometimes typical, but they always manage to surprise you. Don't expect Dream Theater breaks of course, this is a hard rock band. Listen for instance to Love or Misery, one of the best tracks in the CD. Slow and calm in the beginning, it unleashes great power in the bridge and chorus only to calm down a bit later, just to lift up again near the end. Or Naïve Bree that every minute something new is added in the already lifting up spirit of the song. The album has also two very nice slow songs, Eyes on You and Marianne where Jeff gives a great performance in vocals, full of passion.
Joey Vera's (Armored Saint's bassist/producer) work on production is also very good. He managed to give DC4's music the volume and feeling that was necessary for those songs to show their full potential. Some Armored Saint characteristics can be found of course (a few songs indeed sound a bit like Armored Saint during their Symbol of Salvation era), but that's not annoying at all in my opinion. It only adds to the already good result.
In overall this is a very good album. If you are into hard rock with funky/groovy feeling then I advice you to get it. It's a good release and we don't have many good releases in that field anymore. I am already looking forward to their next release.