The Dwarves return with a new eye-popping twenty tracks on an album entitled Concept Album. The rather unassuming title belies the thunderous creativity erupting from each of those twenty tunes as Dwarves Svengali Blag Dahlia teams with powerhouse contributors drummer Josh Freese from the Foo Fighters and Nick Oliveri, most famous for his bass playing with bands such as Queens of the Stone Age and Kyuss. It’s a thrilling trio.

“Feeling Great” should be a freaking single. It’s one of the best put-together cuts I heard on this album. Dahlia’s freewheeling sense of humor carries the day through the lyrics and his singing truly enjoys the moment as he has a raging band behind him. He’s got a great team beside him with Freese pounding out furious rhythms and Oliveri’s contributions coming through loud and clear as well.

“Terrorist” is a blast. Don’t go into this thinking Blag’s writing about Islamic terrorists. Instead, he takes our vision of what that word means and turns it on its head into a warped love song that I absolutely love. The payoff moment of the song’s key line makes it all worthwhile but, once again, Freese and Oliveri blast away clearly inspired to be working alongside this punk rock master. “Ages Ago” is one of the album’s best tunes. In the annals of “fuck off, you’re gone” love songs, this should rank high. His taut and unforgiving language finds a perfect musical setting in another of Freese’s and Oliveri’s whip-tight musical performances.

https://open.spotify.com/album/6zx6n3hhscN57tbd09epgN?autoplay=true

The Dwarves’ insane stab at surf music, “Dead to Me”, rollicks through another case of love gone bad. There’s plenty of humor in the tune, as usual, and the guitar playing is exceptional. The outlaw nature of “Nobody and Me” cannot be denied as the opening line “I’m leavin’ with the sunrise” further evolves into a steamrolling rock tune that the three band members exploit to its fullest potential. I love this tune so much it hurts.

But I love “Kill or Be Killed” even more. This is out-and-out aggression personified, take no prisoners, and yet highly musical. It isn’t an one-note musical exercise, however, as The Dwarves shift gears in the song’s second half with resounding results. “You Lose We Win” is a “band song” in the way that it’s about the band’s long-established identity and man, oh, man, it should go down like a house on fire in concert. It’s unapologetic as well, as it should be. It’s full-throttle punk rock with great “shout-out” moments from Blag that audiences will love as well.

“Come Unglued” is another exhausting but exhilarating blast of fun from the band. There’s no shift during this song where they vary the musical attack, but you won’t mind. Blag should burn out his voice singing the way he does here, but he never loses any energy, and neither do his bandmates. Ending it with a small bit where a young woman says she has a good Dwarves story and it’s pretty fucking good is a great way to sum up this album as a whole. It’s more than pretty fucking good though. It’s pretty fucking great. 

Brent Musgrave