SOLACE - 13
MeteorCity 2003
by Mark Bridgeman
All stoner rock sounds the same. Sabbath Sabbath Sabbath. Fuzz, downtuned, rawk, Kyuss Kyuss Kyuss.
Now that the terms necessary for a cliched review of a 'stoner' release are out of the way, one can instead examine 13 for being exactly what it is: the latest Solace release, following on from 2000's 'Further', and a huge, bleeding slab of energetic rock'n'roll. With tracks like 'Common Cause', they leap beyond the commonly-held perception that all stoner/fuzz/whatever is slow, sludgey, crawling music. These guys are kicking rock arse with this album.
They can be epic ('Once Around The Sun'), classicly sweaty ('Forever My Queen'), and downright lush ('Try', with soulfull, restrained guitars, compressed vocals, and a laidback rythm section before leaping into an energetic tumble). They also manage to bring in some punk/core sounds into the vocal phrasings, for 'Sled Heavy' and 'Rice Burner' most noticably - elements that help keep it from being a typical retro-reliant LP.
Solace have produced an album consisting of more than the base ingredients, but for a band who has sited Pink Floyd and Judas Priest amongst their influences, one would expect no less.
Heaving, expressive, sweaty rock the way it's meant to be.
www.meteorcity.com
MeteorCity 2003
by Mark Bridgeman
All stoner rock sounds the same. Sabbath Sabbath Sabbath. Fuzz, downtuned, rawk, Kyuss Kyuss Kyuss.
Now that the terms necessary for a cliched review of a 'stoner' release are out of the way, one can instead examine 13 for being exactly what it is: the latest Solace release, following on from 2000's 'Further', and a huge, bleeding slab of energetic rock'n'roll. With tracks like 'Common Cause', they leap beyond the commonly-held perception that all stoner/fuzz/whatever is slow, sludgey, crawling music. These guys are kicking rock arse with this album.
They can be epic ('Once Around The Sun'), classicly sweaty ('Forever My Queen'), and downright lush ('Try', with soulfull, restrained guitars, compressed vocals, and a laidback rythm section before leaping into an energetic tumble). They also manage to bring in some punk/core sounds into the vocal phrasings, for 'Sled Heavy' and 'Rice Burner' most noticably - elements that help keep it from being a typical retro-reliant LP.
Solace have produced an album consisting of more than the base ingredients, but for a band who has sited Pink Floyd and Judas Priest amongst their influences, one would expect no less.
Heaving, expressive, sweaty rock the way it's meant to be.
www.meteorcity.com
