Album Review: Chicken Diamond – Bad Man

If your musical holy grail is to find the filthiest, scuzziest low-down blues guitar sound ever, then seek no more. Charles ‘Chicken’ Diamond has pulled all the stops out on this, his sixth album to reach some kind of new level of dirty intensity on Bad Man. This achievement is all the more remarkable when you consider that Chicken Diamond is a one-man band. Blending digital drums with his love of vintage guitars, the eponymous bad man is master of all he creates, playing and producing his own output.

This is not an album to relax to. It’s mostly driving, dirty blues that reeks of whiskey bars, ciggie smoke and cheap perfume. And to prove that these things are universal, that the blues can speak to you from anywhere on Earth, Chicken Diamond is French. Not swampy Louisiana French either.

Sonically, this is an album that is mostly careering at full tilt. Vocally, it’s a gruff mixture of Lemmy impersonating David Bowie which is in itself a little unsettling, with a splash of Seasick Steve‘s gruff melancholy. Opening track Jelly Roll is an uptempo stomper while Coming Back Home is a classic driving blues grind, reminiscent of the pre-Eliminator ZZ Top. It’s not all furious dirty blues, however. The title track – a cover of fuzzed-out Memphis punks Oblivians – is a dialled back, twanging and introspective Dear John letter from the bluesman (“I’m a bad man, but I’m too good for you“). Mostly though, this is an album of weighty and brutal blues. Top of the heap, however, is the mesmeric, almost alt-metal of closing track Indian Summer, which crosses over from blues to pulsing scuzzed-out rock music.

All in all, an album with a brooding intensity from an artist who been around the block and back. You can hear the wine and late nights. Hell, shut your eyes and you’re there. Play loud.

Bad Man by Chicken Diamond is out on Beast Records this month and can be pre-ordered via Chicken Diamond here