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By Andrew Danesi
Well, in the past two years this trend seems to have died down, with the rise of emo and the re-emergence of heavy metal with such groups as Avenged Sevenfold and Flyleaf getting tons of radio play, you would imagine we've seen the last of these bands. Australia's Wolfmother proves that not only are "hipster" bands here to stay, they can bang their heads with the best of them.
Like the bands I mentioned before, they have their roots in classic rock and use primarily vintage instruments and equipment. The sound, though, is very different than that of the bands who came before them. While Jet sticks with a pop song formula that seems too radio friendly (it's amazing how fast you can lose interest in a band when you hear your grandmother singing Cold Hard Bitch in the car). Wolfmother takes their formula from a page out of the '70s metal songbook. Being influenced more by bands like Blue Oyster Cult, Grand Funk Railroad and Thin Lizzy as apposed to The Stones or The Beatles. Using big chunky chords, cranked up distortion, electric organ pumping through a rotating speaker cabinet, and vocals that make Geddy Lee sound like a baritone, makes this band sound like they were brought back in Doc Brown's time traveling DeLorean.
The albums current single, Woman, is a loud ferocious tune which begs to be played at full blast in your car with all the windows down doing 120 mph. Where Eagles Have Been starts out with a slight southern rock twinge to it and builds to a big pounding rock anthem that would make Led-Zeppelin proud. The one stand out track to me was Minds Eye, which made think of Deep Purple, using an electric organ to color Andrew Stockdale's giant guitar sound. They even had a small tribute to Jethro Tull by adding a flute solo to the song Witchcraft.
This is by far the best CD I bought all summer. The best thing about this disk was the fact that every song sounded different. Every song gave a little surprise and even had me playing air guitar at one point. There are no excuses for not picking this one up. This bands sound, in my personal opinion, has been long over due. It's dark, but not scary; heavy, but not muddy; and choked up with down-tuned guitars. And (for you true metal heads reading this) you can pop this one in on the way to the beach this summer and your girlfriend probably won't complain about it. So say goodbye to The Strokes and The Hives, this Aussie power trio is going to come down on them like the hammer of the gods.
0 7 . 2 7 . 0 6
Perpetual Toxins © 2006-2007 - All Rights Reserved |
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few years ago there was a short trend in music which spawned a few bands that seemed to be cut from the same mold. They were all different in many ways, but all had something in common. They all sounded like they came from the late '60s or early '70s. Bands like Jet, The Hives, and The Strokes all seemed to come from another time entirely. These bands where even given a new genre of sorts called Hipster-Rock.
