Tsar Bomba - Silent Queen (2013)
Tsar Bomba's debut is a well-grounded
piece of work that does a great job blending a wide spread of
influences into a sound of their own, with quite a few riffs and
tunes that will linger in your head long after hearing. If I had to
point to a single style as their root influence, I'd go with a sort
of Pantera-flavored doom; the sludginess of the bass is nicely
matched by the sharp (but still essentially fuzzy) buzz of the
guitar, while the vocalist finds a nice spot between rough and clean
vocals, keeping the words understandable without losing the metal
edge, while they're always ready to let loose a slamming assault from
the drums to shake things up.
The songs (right down to their titles)
keep that swirl of influences going strong throughout the album, with
hard rock, a little grunge, some desert rock, and some psychedelic
looseness adding some savory nuances to the doom proceedings. The
band does a great job of giving listeners an idea of just how wide
they'll be able to spread their wings on follow-up albums, though
they also manage to tie all the pieces together into a full-fledged
album in its own right, not just a taste of things to come.
While I wouldn't have minded a few more
high-speed breakouts, the band's knack with slow grooves brings
Sabbath to mind quite a bit, and it's hard to say no to that sort of
temptation. For their debut effort, Silent Queen is extremely
promising, and I hope that these French lads go quite far in pursuing
those mind-bending grooves, wherever they may lead.
~ Gabriel
For Fans Of; Ramesses,
Stoneburner, Tombstones, Celophys, Alice In Chains
~
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