Diablo BlvdZero Hour

It’s been five years since Alex Agnew retired from stand-up comedy, undoubtedly the biggest comedian in Belgium. An important part of comedy is committing fully to the joke, and Agnew commits fully to his role as frontman of Belgian rockers Diablo Blvd. But the band is no joke, as they prove on their fourth album Zero Hour.

The album blasts open with its most immediate song, Animal. Starting with a sustained Killing Joke-style guitar lead, Alex accuses an unnamed enemy of being bile and an animal. “Don’t pretend you’re one of us,” he snarls over gunfire drums and guitar chugs, howling in the chorus “You’re an animal”. It’s an exciting start and grabs your attention instantly.

Songs take the form of stadium-sized goth-rock of The Sisters Of Mercy, however with more swagger. Producer Dag Taeldeman has boosted the band’s strong bottom-end sounds, with guitars grinding on tunes like The Song Is Over.

Zero Hour is a swaggering album of fist-pumping dark rock perfect for these dark times.

One of the biggest boosts is to Kris Martens’ drums, undoubtedly the band’s secret weapon. Martens’ drumming sounds huge when he pummels on Sing From The Gallows, and caught me off guard at the beginning of Like Rats, especially coming after the acoustic-doom of the instrumental 00 00.

Agnew’s lyrics are what tie Zero Hour together, with each song angry and politically-charged. It’s obvious the lyrics are influenced by our present political division, especially in the venomous God In The Machine where Agnew sarcastically spits from the point of view of a God-fearing leader, “You call this grief, I call this love”. But no matter if Agnew’s singing is resigned or screamed, he rages with defiance.

Zero Hour does lose steam on the 7-minute long Demonize, the weakest track on the album, and as good as Summer Has Gone, it doesn’t seem like the right closing track. But that doesn’t impact the rest of the album, which flexes a lot of muscle throughout. Zero Hour is a swaggering album of fist-pumping dark rock perfect for these dark times.

STANDOUT TRACKS: Animal, You Are All You Love, Like Rats
STICK THIS NEXT TO: Killing Joke, Type O Negative, The Sisters Of Mercy