Seriously, what are they putting in the water in Melbourne? There’s been a slew of great hard rock bands come out of there in recent years and being our resident hard rock guy, I wanted to check this out. And it was only after listening to Adrenaline I discovered Crooked Thieves hail from there. Nevertheless, I wasn’t surprised in the slightest as they perfectly match everything else I’ve heard from there.
Adrenaline does exactly what it says. It’s hard rock full of the stuff and intended to make your own levels spike. Which it should manage to do with relative ease. Opening track “No Mercy” immediately sinks its claws into you with its menacing bass line before the filthiest, rawest riff s it, chugging along in tandem. This is the band making themselves known and the following three tracks keep your attention which it grabbed on the initial song.
Keeping everything short and to the point on the EP, only one song crosses the four-minute mark and each of them are a breakneck race to the finish. There’s no ballad and, if anything, it’d only slow the momentum. However, “Hellbound” does ratchet everything up a notch by being the heaviest number, its driving groove pinned against its gnarly riffs whereas closing song, the aptly titled “Maniac” is the fastest song of the bunch. It adds to the variation by combining Black album-era Metallica with the grunge giants of the same period.
Crooked Thieves know how to vary their blueprinted sound on every song on Adrenaline. Their take on no-frills hard rock isn’t often found, and it’s an EP you can have on repeat until your speakers blow and it’d be interesting to see what they could do on a full album. With a solid band bashing out the songs, it’s another great one to add to the ever-growing Aussie pile, showing the world they have more to offer than just the few usual suspects.
Header image by Miguel Merrett Photography
Adrenaline is out now
Crooked Thieves: facebook | twitter | instagram | youtube | bandcamp
