ALBUM REVIEW: Diaz Brothers – The World Is Yours (Serial Bowl Records)
Five years after their self-titled 2020 debut, Sunderland-based melodic punk powerhouses Diaz Brothers are back with the follow-up.
Anyone who heard their first record will know immediately what to expect; 10 slices of muscular punk driven by a wall of guitars.
Formed from the ashes of 1980s UK hardcore stalwarts HDQ when legendary guitarist Dickie Hammond (Leatherface, Angelic Upstarts) passed too soon in 2015, the five-piece are forging a sound of their own.
Melancholy and melody
There’s lots of melancholy, flashes of anger and plenty of melody in their music, but both are secondary to the sheer power generated by the two guitars-bass-drums-raw vocals combo.
Diaz Brothers are Dave Golledge (ex-HDQ and Hex) on vocals; Neil Cox (Shutdown) on guitar; Max Hakius (Unified Action) on bass; Michael Jones (Loudmouth/ex-HDQ and Red Alert) on guitar and Callum Hewitt on drums.
The fact that four of the members live up north and the fifth 200 miles away means they only rehearse every couple of months, but when they get together the magic seems to flow, and you’d never guess this album was largely written via the medium of WhatsApp.
From the opening Be My Drug it’s evident The World Is Yours (like their name, another Scarface reference) is a step up from the first album. Producer Phil Jackson has conjured up a Phil Spector-like wall of sound here, and the results are mighty impressive.
Lyrically, it touches on many themes, from mental health struggles (As I Tear) to the working classes voting for charlatans like Reform (The Great British Fake Toff, the punkiest track here, which sounds like Bad Religion).
Emotional
Hourglass Full Of Quicksand, one of the standout tracks, is an emotion-filled song about caring for a parent with dementia, while Ego is a takedown of the way some people in the music scene behave.
Who Am I, another highlight, is surely influenced by The Who themselves, and gives the Mods-turned-rockers a run for their money in the loudness stakes, while Anxiety Landslide, which takes off at breakneck pace, is full of screaming guitars and pummelling drums.
Lead single By My Side (released on 7in b/w a superb cover of Mod revival band Secret Affair’s My World, a staple of their live set, which sold out on pre-order) has a hint of the Foo Fighters about it.
If you like rowdy sorts like Samiam, Dag Nasty, Fugazi and Face To Face, as well as HDQ and Leatherface, I’m pretty sure you’ll love Diaz Brothers too. 8/10.
- The World Is Yours is available on CD, red, blue, white or green vinyl, and digitally from Serial Bowl Records’ Bandcamp page HERE.
