Description

Original European press on CBS/Epic records

The Killer Dwarfs performed a style of music that can be labelled something like pop meets metal meets arena rock. The Juno-winning group formed in 1982 in Ontario, Canada. They were known for their offbeat sense of humor (all band members adopted the surname “Dwarf”). Members included lead singer Russ Graham (Russ Dwarf), Bryce Trewin (Bryce Dwarf) on guitar, Ange Fodero (Ange Dwarf) on bass, and Darrell Millar (Darrell Dwarf) on drums. Only a year after its formation, the Killer Dwarfs saw their self-titled debut album hit store shelves. It took three years for a sophomore offering, Stand Tall, to follow. During those years, the band lost two members, Fodero and Trewin, who were replaced by Hall and Mayer. There were other big changes, too, like the giving up of a record contract and a move to the Maze Records label. They released 1986’s Stand Tall (on Maze) in Canada and (Grudge Records) in the USA. The album received good reviews and achieved modest success. The group spent time touring through its Canadian homeland, and crossed over into the United States to a new crop of fans. When the band’s music videos, ‘Keep the Spirit Alive’ (which was the most requested video on MTV by spring 1987), and the title track, ‘Stand Tall’, landed on MTV, Epic Records soon took notice. The ‘Stand Tall’ album sold 80,000 units so the pressure was on when the band released their first album on Epic in 1988. The single track ’We Stand Alone’ from ‘Big Deal’ became a major US metal radio hit and the band were put out as an opening act on Iron Maidens giant ‘Seventh Tour Of A Seventh’ tour in England the same year. ‘Big Deal’ even made into the Billboard charts and Epic wanted the band back into the studio asap. ‘Dirty Weapons’ hit the shelves in 1990. Dirty Weapons might not be the most original album in the world and is far from earth-shattering, though it does contain some fairly catchy material — most notably “Last Laugh,” “All That We Dream,” and “Not Foolin’.” Why one of these songs didn’t make the Killer Dwarfs more successful is anyone’s guess — the album sounds like it was tailor-made for MTV and album-oriented rock radio of the early ’90s. Perhaps it fell between the corporate cracks. If you’re a fan of 80’s metal, you need to pick up Dirty Weapons. It’s a great metal album that got lost in the shuffle. The title track opens the album with a driving metal riff that says, “Let’s rock!”. 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 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. The bands biggest hit off the album was “It Doesn’t Matter”, an acoustic ballad. It went to number one in 13 cities.

Track list:
1. Dirty Weapons
2. Nothin Gets Nothin
3. All That We Dream
4. Doesnt Matter
5. Last Laugh
6. Comin Through
7. One Way Out
8. Appeal
9. Not Foolin
10. Want It Bad