Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Nobody is truly innocent, nobody has the right to ever suggest before any type of unearthly realms jury that they have no stain upon their character or are completely above suspicion, in the end If The Devil Casts His Net wide enough, he will catch us no matter what; it all depends on just how good your lawyers are on whether you get away with it or if you end up filing pokers for the rest of eternity.
Nobody is above suspicion perhaps, however the low down and handsome Blues, the expression of pact with Devil lyrics is enough to give you a heads up when the same entity is about to sweep up the undeserving. It is the same heads up that gives the phenomenally good Pearl Handled Revolver their distinct and gravelly feel and if after all that, if the Devil doesn’t find you then surely it only means that the music is on the side of the angels.
There is no deception to be found in the album, this is just the unadulterated pull of magnetism, of the spark of energy that kick starts a revolution in the imagination and if it the Devil pulling the strings then surely Pearl Handled Revolver are above him leading the merry dance.
In the same way that the narrow minded people used to believe there was touch of the Devil to Jim Morrison, so too perhaps they might consider that Pearl Handled Revolver’s If The Devil Casts His Net has that type of leaning; it is an assumption the supposed just would make when all there is too this album is that is memorable, deep, appealing, growling in the dark like a wolf protecting its young from the fire of man and above all, fist pumping and brilliant.
In songs such as the opening track Help Me Down From The Trees, Someone Like You, the excellent Walk These Streets and the album’s title track, Pearl Handled Revolver stalk the listener down between the grooves and as the swoop of insane justice tries to collect the non-believing soul for its own tar pit, the band find they have saved another worthy person and supporter of the down and dirty Blues; it is a genre fit to burst, however there is always room for one more soul to reside in a music heaven.
If The Devil Casts His Net in your direction, just say you’ve served your time in Hell and now Pearl Handled Revolver have found you a spot in the divine. Stunning!
Ian D. Hall