Diggeth - Zero Hour in Doomtown

Take 50 years of Hard Rock, Metal, Southern Rock and a bit of Progressive Rock; Diggeth will digest it and will spew out their mix of all these genres in songs with hooks, heaviness and groove!” (from their bio)

The Diggeth trio plays oldschool heavy music and create a big and heavy sound which is exceptional for a 3-piece band. Founded in Dinxperlo, a small town in Gelderland with just 7000 inhabitants, Diggeth is a world-class band that has been able to play with the legends of old like Megadeth, Slayer, Phill Campbell and His Bastard Sons and Sacred Reich. That’s quite the achievement for any band, let alone a trio from the Netherlands. In 2019 they released ‘Gringos Galacticos’ which had been the turning point for the band. And while their USA tour had to be postponed because of Covid, they ‘kept on Diggin’. They’ve just released their 4th album ‘Zero Hour in Doomtown’. Let’s ‘dig’ into it!

The album

Zero Hour in Doomtown is over an hour worth of heavy, groovy riffs and headbangable tunes. The raw, southern-edged vocals by ‘big H’ sound like this band belongs on the stage with the legends of old. Besides the heavy, groovy, big sounding riffs, there is plenty of room for instrumental breaks and more melodical, cleaner, rock ‘n roll riffs. The fact that there’s banjos on the album in some tracks only adds to the southern feel. The production of this album is impeccable and leaves room for each instrument while layering vocals and riffs.

Onto the tracks

With 14 tracks, there’s something for everyone to like. Last man Standing is one of my personal favorites, and with the exception of 5 Stages of Grief one of the longer tracks on the album. The overall sound of the tracks is groovy, but they do dip into other genres, for instance with For the Sake of Rock-’n’-Roll, which is also one of the more up-tempo tracks of this album. Only Bonafide is heavier and faster and has a Megadeth feel to it. No album is complete without a power ballad, and that’s probably Wuda Cuda Shuda’s role on this album. It had already been released as a single a few months ago. Stand Straight is a straight up tribute to Walk from Pantera and I’m honestly surprised no one recognized it so far. It gives me hope that we as Dutchies might have a new legendary band in our midst.

Final thoughts

Zero Hour is Doomtown is a fine piece of metal and Diggeth is a band that’s allready too big for our tiny metal country. If you’re into oldschool heavy metal with a Five Finger Deathpunch groove, you’re going to love this album. Personal favorites are Last Man Standing and Walkin’ Man.