'Prior to the fire'
2010
Review By Jim Suffolk
Looking at the album artwork I expected to be listening to just another European power metal band.
But man was I wrong!
After some research on the band I realised they were listed as a hard rock/stoner rock band. Now this kind of music I absolutely love. Clutch, Down, you know, that really southern, chuggy sound that you can sit outside a drink a beer to.
Kicking straight into 'Lady Killer' you get thrown into what seems to be a cross between a stoner rock track and a Mastodon song minus the harsh vocals. The songs keeps up the tempo all the way through, the guitars sound chunky and keep chugging along and the vocals have a very eerie, mysterious feel to them.
The Mastodon sound seems to carry on throughout most of the tracks. It’s not overly technical music but the rhythm and structure of the songs combined with some of the riffs really do sound like Mastodon material.
'Raccoon Eyes' follows much the same direction as the first track but slows down a little bit. It has a very Clutch feel to it, minus the vocalist sounding like he smokes 40 fags a day and drinks whiskey before a studio session.
'Murphy’s Law' slows right down, a much needed break from the previous madness! I found out via the internet this song was written about the bands favourite film, Robocop. Again, this has a very clutch, Down feel to it.
'The Gem', for me, is the epic track on the album. Out of any of the songs this is the most Mastodon sounding track. Very progressive and lots of different ideas going on. Communicating Via-Eyes also follows a Mastodon style riff structure after the acoustic intro.
I’m only halfway through the album but imp running out of room! So far there’s not one track I haven’t liked so I’ll try and pack as much in as I can. To me this album is really refreshing and really nice to listen to, everything sounds really good and all the songs have been really well written.
'Lunar' is exactly what you want to hear after a couple of epic type tracks. Put simply this song is pure beer drinking music. You could put this cd on and sit outside with a few cold ones and easily not want to turn it off until midnight.
I’ve missed out a few songs here and there because I’d be going on all bloody day otherwise!
Any fans of that hard/stoner rock sound achieved by Down and Clutch with a hint of Mastodon thrown in should buy this immediately. Anyone just wanting something fresh to listen to or anyone wanting some beer drinking music!
I will definitely be keeping an eye out for any live shows these guys do in the future.
