DC4ExplodeReview

DC4
Explode
[Chavis Records]
(2008)

Like a Rock ‘n Roll stampede that moves with magnitude and stained class on a 70 mm motion picture screen, L.A.’s first, foremost, and only real hard rock band, DC4, has returned with their second full-length offering, a no holds barred new album for the ages: Explode.

With Shawn Duncan on drums, Matt Duncan on bass, Jeff Duncan on lead vocals/guitar, and British born Rowan Robertson on lead and rhythm guitars, Explode’s title track roars out the gate like the dragsters on the album’s cover. Opening the record with an amplitude and incomparable definition of sound not heard since the halcyon years of Rock, “Explode” represents one crucial value of its album’s namesake that permeates the record, underlying several of the songs’ lyrical matter: The right to be yourself; the right to live being true to what is with an eyes-wide-open denial of what isn’t; and to live with unharnessed confidence even in the face of consequence.

Explode takes an incisive view of society, the human condition, and often each person’s self in the first person. For the audience on some unconscious level, it’s a double killer because one of the lyrical hallmarks of any great song is that it can be adapted to a listener’s own life. The words of the singer in the first person become a second person account. With Explode, that second person is the DC4 fan in the audience. “Don’t quit, you can find it with an evil eye. ‘Cause now is where you are; don’t live to die.”

With its conviction of power, Explode is focused yet uncontained in its instrumental support from the band. The rhythm section of brothers Shawn and Matt Duncan gives Explode its heavy, resonant thunder with a natural control that doesn’t undercut the dynamics nor the ebb and flow within and of the songs themselves. Middle brother Jeff Duncan’s asphalt and diesel soaked voice is matched only by his prowess as one of two guitarists in the band. Complemented by a totally apparent chemistry shared with British born guitarist Rowan Robertson, Duncan’s playing and tone have a weight that knows what it needs to hold, but that weight has little regard for painting the sound inside the lines. By contrast and being the youngest member of the group, Rowan Robertson plays as a mercurial spirit who unselfconsciously goes for impeccable execution. The balance between Robertson and Duncan’s individual tone and style of guitar playing makes for two rockers in a top grade Rock ‘n Roll band whose sounds congeal with one another, but maintain their immediate identifiability as distinct impressions of their respective selves.

The sound of Explode, both production and performance wise, falls in between the cracks. It isn’t old school; and while it reveals a modern bent to a potentially new era in Rock, Explode isn’t about to compromise the quality in order to be rootless and boring. That ethic is right in line with the ‘one crucial value’ it represents as a whole; because Explode has lived, continues to live, and knows what came decades ago before it. And that kind of hard rock soul can’t be bought, sold, or lent for hire. It’s what drives the sound and gives Explode distinction and dignity; a record made by a band with no creative protection save for what’s dubbed the “Duncan Clan,” an enigmatic designation of which non-blood relative Rowan Robertson seems to be a part.

Explode reveals a band that can only be known by their sound. At the point of departure, the everyday world is a place of constraints. To venture beyond the music in order to understand the architects behind Explode is like trying to get a handle on members of the Skull & Bones or Mason societies. Yet Explode hides nothing, least of all the members of the group who made the record.

Ultimately, a definitive sound from an incredible group doesn’t make a good artist by itself. The cornerstone of any great group is the songwriting; and the songwriting is what makes Explode an exceptional hard rock disc. “Explode” and “Rock ‘N Roll Disease,” the first two songs that open the record, are emblematic of classic hard rock song structure. Taken undiluted, both songs in succession are two different sides putting forth the declaration of Rock as the one inviolable outlet for chained spirits. If the next cut, “Experiment,” is Explode’s proof of a catchy, hook driven radio single, another side of the songwriting, mainly handled by singer/guitarist Jeff Duncan, introduces itself in “God Complex.” Lyrically, Duncan aggressively prods at human character flaws like an artist who isn’t afraid of being disturbed, but instead celebrates the disturbance as a cathartic moment of impact from which a feeling of euphoria can be derived; a moment of impact that delivers the notion to live with confidence in the face of consequence, good or bad.

What makes Explode an effective record is that even if the lyrics don’t always represent the listener’s mindset, they don’t get in the way of the disc’s main objective, either; and the main objective is hard rock to the core. As tight as Explode is, though, the approach to the music isn’t one dimensional. If “Explode,” “Rock ‘N Roll Disease,” and “Experiment” rely on standard structures, “God Complex” strips the art of songwriting down to its most basic essence, disciplining itself not to bite off more than it can chew. “Cabin Fever” is as heavy as it gets, especially on the chorus, but takes an adventurous, unpredictable approach that provides a grand illusion of conceptual writing that’s powerful on the Richter scale if not as groundbreaking as the illusion makes the song seem. “This Is What You Wanted” takes epic, almost progressive hard rock songwriting and distills it into a less self-indulgent song form that has legitimate presence on Explode and AOR radio potential as well. “Candy Caine,” possibly the most powerful song ever written about Cocaine addiction, rocks hard as a shuffle. Providing a very heavy take on a rhythm many newer bands in Rock can’t execute insofar as to make it swing hard as it does here, “Candy Caine” mirrors the constricted consciousness that blow provides in a very real way, with desperation and a sense of continued battle even in the face of triumph.

Beyond the next two cuts, “Long Hard Road To Lost” and the esoteric “Disturbed,” Explode closes with “Hate Parade.” Accented by slightly Psychedelic electric guitar, “Hate Parade” also features a rare spotlight of acoustic guitar on the disc. Augmented by an arrangement that lends itself to a different kind of performance, “Hate Parade” showcases Jeff Duncan’s lead vocals with an intonation that belies his approach to singing on the rest of Explode. The song is an interesting end piece for the disc; and while different, it builds in such a way that its inclusion makes sense. “Hate Parade” may resolve Explode, but the track ends with an aura of uncertainty. Explode is an authoritative record; so the feeling of uncertainty at the end of the disc’s closing notes may be a harbinger of fate that DC4 isn’t about to lose their mojo anytime soon.

-- Greg Debonne

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