RIVAL SONS - Great Western Valkyrie

Kategorie: CD-Reviews | Genre: Classic Rock | Heft: Jahrgang 2014, eclipsed Nr. 161 / 6-2014 | VÖ-Jahr: 2014 | Wertung: 8/10 | Label: Earache | Autor: JV


The Californian foursome also kidnaps its listeners with its fourth album into the seventies, sometimes even a decade further back. Each one of the ten songs was so lovingly trimmed to old that one would like to give in to the illusion that one had discovered a lost band from the heyday of super-reliable blues rock. Anyone who does this kind of retro is, of course, almost conjuring up comparisons. "Electric Man" features a guitar riff and solo that Jimi Hendrix could have come up with; the vocals are a bit reminiscent of Hendrix's voice, but also contain Rory-Gallagher parts. "Secret" reveals an open secret: Vocal chameleon Jay Buchanan can sound like Robert Plant. "Good Luck" is a strange bastard: A 08/15 riff gets such a dynamic boost that it suddenly sounds interesting again and you can guess if Cream would have had a single success with it. The same is true for "Play The Fool", but from about half on it drifts off into a lively instrumental part with rumbling drums. Repetitions aren't the thing of retro rockers, but that's also part of their charm. Good Things", which mixes simple life wisdom with a fat portion of Motown soul, is suspected to be a hit. By the way, the new bassist Dave Beste is responsible for the rich groove not only on this track. "Rich And The Poor" comes across like an antique Bond song that even an aging soul diva could have hummed. In "Belle Starre", rough and psychedelic drifted parts struggle for supremacy. No rock album without a ballad: On "Where I've Been" Buchanan suffers dutifully and properly, but it is not the strongest piece of the record. The retro spacecraft finally disappears into the psychedelic noise cosmos, but not somewhere, but fully on course ("Destination On Course").

Top track: Belle Rigor

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