Nightosaur - Set Fire To The Mountain (2014)
On Set Fire To The Mountain,
Nightosaur bring the title of their album to life, producing songs
that would seem right at home played by a band of men with craggy
faces by the light of a mountain-top bonfire. They've got grit, a
good ear for riffs with the endurance to stick around for a while,
and enough of a rough edge to their sound to keep it earthy without
descending into lo-fi. In keeping with the days of early heavy
metal, there's something of a Lovecraft or rugged sci-fi vibe to the
songs, with titles such as “The Shocking Tale Of Wilson Pinnafore”
side-by-side with “Old Gods” and “Bow Down To Thy Destroyer”,
even as they stay rooted in slow bass grooves and interludes for
sparser mourning.
Really,
these guys just have a solid grip on what made early heavy metal so
enticing, before it started getting into the theatrical aspect. They
take some bluesy riffs, make it heavy, add some appropriately
powerful drumming, and see where it takes the music. They strike a
great balance between relaxed freedom and a definite plan with each
of their songs, and I have to imagine that leaving themselves such
room to improvise leads to some amazing live shows.
If
you're still carrying a torch for the early days of Black Sabbath and
Iron Butterfly's heavier moments, you'd be doing yourself a favor to
pick up Nightosaur's new album. The name may be silly, but you won't
be getting anything that's looking to capitalize on cheesier moments
of metal, just an earnest tribute to the genre in its original form.
~
Gabriel
For
Fans Of; Magic Circle, Saint Vitus, Bitchcraft, Valkyrie, English
Dogs
~
No comments:
Post a Comment