ALBUM REVIEW: Diamond Cut Diamond – Convent Guilt

Australian hard rockers CONVENT GUILT have been working hard on their second record Diamond Cut Diamond, coming four years after their debut album Guns For Hire was released. The name of that record links to legendary Australian rockers AC/DC, and no doubt will be looking to follow in their footsteps with the release of the new record.

The opening track is Howling Vengeance, and while some bands like to have a gentle intro to a record, CONVENT GUILT throw you in head first right from the first second. The solo riffs kick things off, before the rest of the instruments join in as the tempo drops a fair chunk once the song progresses. Front man and bassist Ian Belshaw provides an eerie vocal style, with echoes of Ozzy Osbourne featuring in his voice, while in some points it is also reminiscent of Brian Johnson. It’s not skull crushing heavy metal which you might expect, and has more of a classic rock sound throughout which works well when all the elements come together.

Up next is Born To Trouble, which features some more complex riffs compared to the opening track and a slightly harsher vocal style, but in the overall picture there isn’t too much difference in the sound and it follows a similar sound. There is certainly a wisp of classic metal about it, but anyone expecting a heavy record will be disappointed at this point. There are only seven tracks on the record, and when you listen to each one there’s a lot of similarities of some classic metal bands – one minute it sounds like you’re listening to IRON MAIDEN but then it quickly changes to what could easily be a JUDAS PRIEST number.

Fortunately if you’re wanting heavy tracks you’re in luck, as they come in the latter stages of the album, predominately with Bonnie and Clyde and Foxes Run – the former doesn’t sound heavy at all when you first listen to it, with the intro progressing very slowly and running for over a minute before the pace picks up and the riffs kick into overdrive, and it is really in this track where you seem to have a unique blend of IRON MAIDEN and JUDAS PRIEST. As for Foxes Run, this is the last song on the record and also the longest; the guitars really dominate the overall sound in this one, very different to the majority of the album where they sound faded in the background. This is what heavy metal is all about, and is a great way to wrap up the album.

On the whole then, Diamond Cut Diamond certainly has potential, but that’s about it. It’s good to see the sound evolve throughout the record and get heavier as each song progresses, but really it does take a while to get into and if you’re looking for hard, fast, aggressive metal from start to finish then this really isn’t the record for you. While it ends on a high, the fact that it starts so slow and the classic heavy metal elements take such a long time to shine though really drags the record down on the whole.

Rating: 6/10

Diamond Cut Diamond is out now via Gates Of Hell Records. 

Like CONVENT GUILT on Facebook.