 KILLER
DWARFS
Dirty Weapons
Epic Records 1990
www.killerdwarfs.com
What’s the 4-1-1?
With a name like Killer Dwarfs, how could you go wrong? Oh, you've never
heard of them? Well, neither did I until 16 years ago when I forgot to
send back that damn music club reply card. I found the band's fourth album,
Dirty Weapons in my mailbox. To my surprise, they blew me away!
Formed in 1981, Killer Dwarfs established a solid following in their home
country of Canada with their self-titled debut. In 1984 the U.S. started
to take notice when the band released Keep the Spirit Alive, the first single
from their sophomore album entitled Stand Tall. The accompanying video was
added to regular rotation on MTV. Later that year Killer Dwarfs were signed
by Epic Records to a worldwide deal. The band released their second album
for Epic, Dirty Weapons in 1990.
The title track opens the album with a driving metal riff that says, "Let's
rock!" (Though the message is highly political.) Russ Dwarf has a great
melodic voice, which can be compared to Jack Russell (Great White) but with
a much higher range. Guitarist Mike Dwarf tears it up with catchy hooks,
and shredding solos in the vain of George Lynch (Dokken) among others. All
of the songs including "Nothing Gets Nothing," "All That We
Dream," "Last Laugh," and "Coming Through" have
the typical metal format: Opening riff, verse, chorus, solo, back to verse.
But, isn't that what we loved about 80's metal? "One Way Out" has
a bluesy tone to it. As the album winds down with "Appeal", "Not
Fooling", and "Want it Bad", the music loses the punch that
the earlier songs had, but are still great melodic pieces.
Sadly, as the grunge movement (seems to be the cause of most downfalls)
started to take over the music scene, Killer Dwarfs found themselves without
a record label and broke up in 1995. They reunited in august of 2001. The
band recorded that performance for a future CD and DVD release. The still
do occasional live shows.
The Verdict
If you're a fan of 80's metal, Dirty Weapons is a great
metal
album that got lost in the shuffle.
Did You Know?
The bands biggest
hit off the album was "It Doesn't Matter, an acoustic ballad. It went
to number one in 13 cities.
Rating:  out
of 5
--George Dionne
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