Album Review ~ Diamonds and Guns ~ 'Making Cash For Heartless Crooks'

With little online presence, leaving an air of mystique around the band, up and coming hard rock act, Diamonds and Guns carved out a place for themselves with their debut EP. Formed in 2019, the band worked and recorded their way through the worldwide pandemic, using the time to their best abilities in an era where many artists struggled with their creativity and lack of an audience. While not much is made public about Diamonds and Guns, it’s safe to say their music speaks for them, specifically their five-track EP titled Making Cash For Heartless Crooks.

The title track serves as the introduction, with a melodic minute long riff paving the way and haunting vocals harmonizing over it. A slow, eerie lullaby fades out, luring us into the rest of this vibrant EP.

“So Long, Chicago,” was one of the singles released from Making Cash For Heartless Crooks. With hard-punk riffs slamming against raspy vocals, “So Long, Chicago” is an upbeat bop meant to thrill. The verses are muted which makes way for a banging chorus and hardcore screams as backing harmonies. The standout part of the song is the ending when everything comes together right after the entrancing guitar solo in a grande finale sort of chorus.

Track three “Nevertheless” follows next taking on a storytelling narrative. “Nevertheless” tells the story of youth, a nostalgic look back sung in a style reminiscent of Henry Rollins or The Replacements. Pulsing beats triumph throughout and a tantalizing hard rock riff weaves in and out of a heavy solo laced with angst and attitude.

“September” chimes in with a punchy bubblegum-rock riff. The singular riff stays isolated for a brief moment before the other instrumentals roar in. Wordy and coming at listeners with the speed of a race car, “September” is a party all on its own,

“Oh’Thanks For Friday” samples Glenn Miller in the intro with a short snippet of “In the Mood.” Seconds in, it breaks away into a clash of hard metal distortion and throaty screams. This might be the most diverse of the EP, with a jazzy approach hidden in the mass of heavy punk breakdowns. Melodic and heart-stomping both, “Oh’ Thanks For Friday,” captures so many conflicting energies into a singular song. For fans of Social Distortion and The Descendents, Diamonds and Guns share that same fast-paced youthful appeal and urban grime. Hailing from Sweden in the time of the pandemic, they’ve done well to assort themselves into their own hard-to-define scene, not limiting themselves to only punk or alt-rock or hardcore but combining subgenres into their own creative recordings.

I’m Music Magazine Writer Alice Kearney