Scotland's Terra Diablo obviously understand that in rock music, as in other popular art forms, everything old can be made new again. Already embraced by portions of the influential English music press and mainstream production types who've had a hand in the apotheosis of overheated goth-metallions Evanescence, the decidedly retro Glaswegian quartet comes to these shores to prepare the way for their second full-length CD, Deluge Songs.
While Swervedriver, My Bloody Valentine and other U.K. bands from the high shoegazer era have had a part in influencing Terra Diablo's wall-to-wall, arena-ready sound, the Scots dip into the grunge playbook so often that you'd swear they spent their formative years on this side of the pond. On their self-titled debut from 2006, vocalist Ian Fairclough's urgent keening recalls both Dave Grohl and Bush's Gavin Rossdale, and a preference for loud-then-soft song structures marks the whole band as Nirvana worshipers.
Whether the world is ready for a full-fledged grunge revival is anyone's guess. But with U.S. metal in the midst of an identity crisis and indie struggling to be much more than the music of choice for English majors and other sensitive souls, Terra Diablo's tunefulyet-explosive guitar rock certainly has a chance with a broad swath of U.S. iPod addicts.
