Dirty Rose are a young three piece band from Stoneyburn, West Lothian consisting of brothers Alan (bass and vocals) and Chris Clarkson (guitar) with David (Taz) Greig completing the line up on drums. The roots of the Dirty Rose sound is clearly in 1980’s heavy metal, with Judas Priest and Megadeth being big influences. As an unsigned band, it is always going to be tough when it comes to getting demo material produced but overall, the mix on this EP is rather rough around the edges. The vocals in particular don’t cut the mustard, lacking range and sustained power at times. 

The material is rather dark and serious with titles such as “No Way Back” and “Insanity”, which certainly doesn’t make for easy listening but that seems to be part of Dirty Roses’ stated aims, so in this respect, they have achieved something. “No Way Back” also pounds along, driven by the bass and drums and there are some reasonable power chords and crunching riffs on occasion but it all lacks consistency. The anti-war song “Waiting To Die”, definitely seems the strongest of the songs lyrically. 

Given there is a growing audience out there for traditional heavy metal,  Dirty Rose could be part of that resurgence but on this evidence they  still have some way to go before thinking about taking on the world. Any heavy metal purists out there might want to check out the Dirty Rose MySpace site for the three songs already mentioned, along with a few more (live demo) recordings that simply reinforce what I’ve been saying above.

Contact: www.myspace.com/dirtyrosemusic  

Track Listing

No Way Back
Insanity
Waiting To Die

Line Up

Alan Clarkson – Bass/Vocal
Chris Clarkson – Guitar
David (Taz) Greig - Drums