Devils Creek: Teeth Review

Listening to Devils Creek’s past work would be enough to convince you that the band was an experiment in cryogenic freezing in the 70s, and that after being thawed in 2006 they picked up right where they’d left off.  Known for having a very typical 70s hard rock/blues sound, Devils Creek has been treated as a time-machine of sorts, providing current music for all listeners who desperately miss the simplicity of the music of generations past.

Of course, Devils Creek has been criticized from time to time for never really bringing anything new to the table.  Their fourth release, Teeth, feels like an attempt to remedy this.  The changes are subtle, certainly nothing that would offend their fan base.  Bass lines occasionally are given special treatment.  “Heartbreaker” is actually built around a bass riff.  The strongest material seems to be the more riff-oriented tracks, usually featuring a southern-styled acoustic guitar played with a slide, like in “Me and the Devil” and “In the Box.”  Long-time fans will particularly appreciate songs like “Summer Rain,” which feels like a 70s British hard rock song reminiscent of The Sweet (and, of course, the ever-persisting Rory Gallagher comparisons apply here too).

All-in-all, Teeth feels like at times it strives to create a distinctive “Devils Creek” sound, and then rather than fully embracing it the record chooses to just brush shoulders with it on occasion.  Somehow though, Devil Creek makes this work.  “Hippy Ways” can’t comfortably be called some incarnation of 70s hard rock, but it can’t really be called anything else, either.  “Atonement” is equally perplexing – almost a ballad, but not quite, eventually culminating in a well-executed guitar solo.  The album ends with a traditional twelve-bar blues track, “No Way to Live.”  At seven and a half minutes, this jam-oriented track is the album’s longest.

Teeth isn’t in any way a departure from Devils Creek’s previous three releases.  If anything, the subtle differences on Teeth do a good job of providing songs and sounds that can contrast each other nicely while still working comfortably within Devils Creek’s set paradigm.  Hard Rock for hard rock fans, Devils Creek has discovered what it is they do best and on Teeth, they do it.

The Review: 7.5/10

 Can’t Miss Tracks

– Hippy Ways
– Heart Breaker
– Me and the Devil
– No Way to Live

The Big Hit

-Hippy Ways

Review by Richard MacDougall