Band Of Skulls - Himalayan (2014)

2017-11-11T13:00:43Z

Band Of Skulls - Himalayan (2014)


1 	Asleep At The Wheel 	4:06
2 	Himalayan 	3:13
3 	Hoochie Coochie 	2:37
4 	Cold Sweat 	4:37
5 	Nightmares 	4:11
6 	Brothers And Sisters 	3:05
7 	I Guess I Know You Fairly Well 	3:35
8 	You Are All That I Am Not 	4:52
9 	I Feel Like Ten Men, Nine Dead And One Dying 	4:08
10 	Toreador 	3:59
11 	Heaven's Key 	4:49
12 	Get Yourself Together 	3:54
13 	Be Mine 	2:41

Russel Marsden - vocals, guitar
Emma Richardson - bass guitar, vocals
Matt Hayward - drums
Nick Launay - producer, mixing

Released in 2012, Sweet Sour saw the bluesy Southampton guitar rock trio moving out of the garage and into a flat, offering up a lustrous, loud, and wistful (yet still gritty enough to evoke a few White Stripes comparisons) set of moody English alt-rock confections that provided a little distance from the myriad American post-garage rock revivalists that they're so often lumped in with. Himalayan, the trio's third long-player, takes one step forward and two steps back by dousing everything in a slick coating of chrome (thanks in large part to Yeah Yeah Yeahs producer Nick Launay), positioning the group somewhere between the cool, calculated swagger of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and the equally copacetic posturing of the Duke Spirit. The sleek, cylindrical, and relatively soulless opener "Asleep at the Wheel" serves as the obvious litmus test, delivering an immaculately rendered sonic assault that's all style and no substance, sounding a bit like Muse attempting a Black Keys song, or vice versa. It's a template that's used with great frequency throughout the album's 12 cuts, many of which manage to just skate by on their manufactured panache, but there are occasions when the extra dollop of polish elevates instead of over-inflates, like on the relentless, piston-like "Hoochie Coochie," the lush and languid closer "Get Yourself Together," and the brooding, midnight-black highway rocker "I Feel Like Ten Men, Nine Dead and One Dying," the latter of which fuses the ghoulish retro-rockabilly gait of "Hollywood Babylon"-era Misfits with the meaty riffage of Icky Thump. Once again, Band of Skulls have proven that they have the chops and the moxie, but they still need more than a handful of memorable songs to seal the deal. ---James Christopher Monger, AllMusic Review

Marsden, Richardson i Matt Hayward (perkusista) należą do tej części młodego pokolenia, które na amen zasłuchało się w starych winylach. A następnie ruszyło w świat. Niosąc na sztandarze maksymę, iż stare jest dobre, więc po co w nim majstrować?

Już pierwszy album tej grupy, rozrzutnie zatytułowany „Baby Darling Doll Face Honey” narobił w sieci nieco zamieszania. W tym samym 2009 roku rękę do debiutantów wyciągnął wielki przemysł rozrywkowy. Ich utwór „Friends” umaił swą obecnością wątpliwe uroki filmu „Zmierzch: Księżyc w nowiu.” Piosnka to prosta, ale już w niej słychać, że Skullsi umieją dawać klasycznego rockowego łupnia.

Od tamtego czasu zespół rozwija się z albumu na album jak ten rozmaryn. „Himalayan” jest ich trzecią produkcją, jak dotąd najśmielszą i najbardziej rozbuchaną. Chłopaki (i dziewczyna) ewidentnie nauczyli się czegoś od starych wyjadaczy, z którymi jeździli w trasy. Trzeba przyznać, że Skullsi uczą się chętnie i niemal zbyt pilnie. Ich chodząca na bluesowych tranzystorach, osmalona tłustym hardrockowym płomieniem nuta składa się głównie z zapożyczeń. Na „Himalayan” znajdziemy echa twórczości The Kills i The White Stripes, The Black Keys i Queens of the Stone Age. Lecz nade wszystko: Led Zeppelin i T-Rex.

Być może Skullsi nie znaleźli za pomocą „Himalayan” swego Everestu. Niektórym utworom nie zaszkodziłoby więcej spójności; teksty nie powalają. Niemniej, chłopaki (i dziewczyna) czerpią z klasycznych źródeł w najlepszym możliwym stylu. Ich jest urok, wdzięk i moc. Ta nuta drąży serce każdego fana staroci. W moim zostanie na dłużej. ---Nina Wum, dzikabanda.pl

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Band of Skulls – Sweet Sour (2012)

2012-02-11T15:44:18Z

Band of Skulls – Sweet Sour (2012)


01 – Sweet Sour
02 – Bruises
03 – Wanderluster
04 – The Devil Takes Care of His Own
05 – Lay My Head Down
06 – You’re Not Pretty But You Got It Goin’ On
07 – Navigate
08 – Hometowns		play
09 – Lies
10 – Close to Nowhere
11 – Such a Fool		play

Russell Marsden (guitar, vocals),
Emma Richardson (bass, vocals), 
Matt Hayward (drums).

Setting sail from Southampton with a head stuffed full of American dreams may seem a treacherous endeavour – most famously, it’s the same city which waved the Titanic off on its maiden voyage across the pond – but natives Band of Skulls were never likely to sink in similar fashion. Their 2009 debut Baby Darling Doll Face Honey seemed far more suited to the down and dirty vibe of the Midwest than the south of England; a slab of whiskey-soaked rock‘n’roll resplendent with iron-girded riffs and sweetly sexy melodies. Coming off like a more primordial version of The Black Keys or The Kills, it would have taken one behemoth of an iceberg to curtail them.

Unsurprisingly, they’ve plumped for some big old heaps of bombast on Sweet Sour, too – a follow-up three years in the making and one that, according to its creators, was a mighty mess to pull together in the studio. If there were any unsightly frissons between the trio, though, they’ve been extremely well hidden: the garage-indebted death-rattle of the title-track is supremely slick, its squalling wail of guitar consummately polished and buffered. Wanderluster, too, is a slinky, snaking number that gives the raw power of their debut a glossy overhaul, but without extinguishing the white-hot groove that chugs beneath the fuzz.

But while Band of Skulls tick all the right boxes, it’s the lack of unpredictability and friction that often serves as Sweet Sour’s undoing. All the fret-mastery of You Aren’t Pretty but You Got It Going On, for example, can’t stop its riff-heavy body from becoming flabby rock-by-numbers. For all the nods to Jack White – particularly his days in The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather – there’s little in the way of his phosphorus-like flashes of inspiration, and The Devil Takes Care of His Own isn’t the only track to gamely replicate a grizzled blues rock sound, but without offering a fresh twist on old ideas.

Tellingly, it’s the more restrained moments of Sweet Sour – such as the smoky, dreamy hue of Lay My Head Down and slow-burning beauty of Navigate – which sees Band of Skulls flourish most effectively. For now, they still have enough primitive power to brush past any road blocks, but they could do with tweaking their formula somewhat if they don’t want to run out of gas. --- Ben Hewitt, BBC Review

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Rock, Metal

Band Of Skulls - Himalayan (2014)

Band of Skulls – Sweet Sour (2012)