John Dellroy Band – “Burning Desire”

URL: http://www.johndellroy.com/

John Dellroy Band throw down one of the most intriguing and eccentrically stylish alternative tunes of the spring in their all-new single “Burning Desire,” which sees them fusing experimental folktronica with roaring rock n’ roll rhythms inside of four unforgettable minutes of play. “Burning Desire” is simple on the surface, but when we dig into its arrangement and relentless percussive beats, we find that it’s far from a predictable pop single. Dellroy and his cohorts come ripping through the silence on the whim of an epic bassline that quickly envelops the riffs in a beastly tonality as textured as the lyrical content that it frames is. There’s plenty of spice here for metal fans, rock aficionados, pop fiends and electronica buffs alike to find some satisfaction in, and I honestly don’t recall the last time I said that about any new song.

The drum track in “Burning Desire” uses a conceptual arrangement to induce as much tension in listeners as possible; from the get-go, it’s structured to shadow the bassline (instead of the other way around) and it gallops with even more intensity as we get deeper into the song. The guitars are overdriven and rich with a manipulated fuzzy feedback that screams out of the stereo with as much passion as we’re getting from the vocal, and while everything centers on the lush lyrical ribbonry binding all of the grooves together, the verses aren’t the only components telling us a story in this single. “Burning Desire” engages us on all fronts without ever coming off as overambitious in nature, and that in itself is no easy feat.

As previously mentioned, the hard rock undertow in this track is impossible to ignore, and it is perhaps best represented in the muscular guitars that drive home the hook in the chorus. They’re ultra-heavy and lightly scooped, but they aren’t as virtuosic nor overindulgent as what we’ve heard in some of John Dellroy Band’s more metallic contemporaries. There’s just enough pomp in “Burning Desire” to make it appealing to left-leaning metalheads without surrendering the substance of the song over to the bombast and camp that has riddled the output of similarly stylized acts with just as much crossover appeal as this group has. Dellroy’s showing off his versatility here more than he ever has before, and his band’s sound couldn’t be much more fluid and agile at the moment.

Fans who can appreciate an engaging groove need to hear what John Dellroy Band has cooked up for us in their latest single “Burning Desire,” as it presents audiences with a handful of sensational riff-rocking beats that JDB’s rivals will have a tough time topping this spring. I was only somewhat familiar with this group’s work prior to giving this track a spin for the first time in the past week, but there’s no doubt that they’ve got just as much physicality and panache as any of their likeminded Austrian powerhouse bands have. They’re setting themselves apart with swaggering numbers like this one, and I’m really looking forward to hearing how their music matures over the next few years alongside the ever-shifting landscape of international pop culture.

YOU TUBE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0q1MekO7-4

Michael Rand