The Damn Truth

Some albums slowly seduce you with their charms and, like a long engagement, grow on you without you realising it. ‘Now Or Nowhere’ by Montreal based quartet The Damn Truth is like a Vegas wedding after an all-night bender with a complete stranger, by comparison. Opening track ‘This is Who We are Now’ grabs the attention like an involuntary ice-bucket challenge, an adrenalin rush of power chords and impossibly fast machine gun drumming from Dave T on the sticks that makes one’s ears stand up to attention.

The soaring vocals of Lee-la Baum are superb here and throughout. The vocal energy she creates on this track sounds like the euphoric cry of a Viking warrior maiden trying out a new axe on some fresh victim. She blasts out the high notes without in any way resorting to the painful screeching that some female vocalists resort to. This is a brilliant track with an absolutely killer melodic chorus, featuring some equally powerful lead lines from Tom Shemer on guitar.

This is the sort of stonking music that will inevitably lead to an absolute storm of dandruff flying through the air as some serious headbanging gets going. ‘Tomorrow’ follows, with an opening guitar riff that is more than a little reminiscent of Guns N’ Roses, before the band show off their own style and collective chops on another great number with a huge chorus.

‘Only Love’ starts off by fooling listeners to get their lighters out and wave them in the air in time with a power ballad tempo, only to turn into an insanely catchy power Pop rocker with some superb jangling riffs. This is the sort of track that your neighbour may unfortunately become fixated with and play non-stop at 2am.

Heavyweight producer Bob Rock oversaw the majority of tracks and he clearly knows his way around a mixing desk, as well as knowing how to get a good performance from those he works with. This is a really strong album that is inspired by, and sounds like, intelligently played Classic Rock that stays on the right side of the melodic spectrum without sacrificing any Rock swagger.

Simon Green