Alabama Shakes - Sound and Color

Artist: Alabama Shakes
Album: Sound and Color
Year: 2015
Rating: 91/100

With the likes of the Black Keys, Blues Pills and Gary Clark Jr. among others enjoying acclaim from critics and fans alike, it was surely only a matter of time before Alabama Shakes had their turn in the spotlight as part of the new blues-rock revolution. Led by Brittany Howard's captivating, soulful vocals, "Sound and Color" is the Athens, Alabama quartet's second album.

Right from the start, Alabama Shakes grab the listener from the opening strains of the title track, with its sumptuous grooves and guitarist Heath Fogg's excellent guitar work. Lead off singles "Don't Wanna Fight", "Future People" and "Gimme All Your Love" provide Brittany Howard with the chance to play to her strengths with her vocal power. "This Feeling" is a beautifully worked acoustic blues number which changes the pace a little. The final two tracks, "Gemini" and "Over My Head" are slow burners that burn ever so brightly as the song winds down and has the listener yearning for more.

The influences that are evident on "Sound and Color" might not be wholly original. But Alabama Shakes's sound just feels so unforced that everything they attempt works a treat, and they still manage to sound like the same band, even when they attempt something different. It's a mature and hugely diverse effort that works primarily because the Shakes dared to be different. If that works for you, definitely give this album a look.

Track List:

1. Sound & Color
2. Don't Wanna Fight
3. Dunes
4. Future People
5. Gimme All Your Love
6. This Feeling
7. Guess Who
8. The Greatest
9. Shoegaze
10. Miss You
11. Gemini
12. Over My Head

The Haunted - Exit Wounds

Artist: The Haunted
Album: Exit Wounds
Year: 2014
Rating: 54/100

The Haunted as they stand are a band in transition at the moment. For one band member to quit at an inopportune moment is unfortunate, but for three of the five to quit within a short space of time is nothing short of a travesty, especially when these musicians are of the calibre of Peter Dolving, Anders Björler and Per Möller Jensen. They're three very formidable musicians to lose. However, Jonas Björler brought two very familiar faces back in the form of Adrian Erlandsson and Marco Aro, along with new guitarist Ola Englund, and the end result has appeared here in the form of the band's eighth effort, "Exit Wounds".

Unfortunately, with the departures of Dolving, Anders Björler and Per Möller Jensen looming large, the other thing that has disappeared from the Haunted's arsenal is the ability to write truly killer songs, despite the best efforts of Aro and Erlandsson. The songs, for the most part, lack cohesion, and conviction, and Aro and Erlandsson frequently find that their bandmates are trailing in their wake with Gothenburg metal by numbers riffs that serve the sole purpose of taking up album space.

"Eye of the Storm", while hardly in the same class as older Haunted cuts such as "Hollow Ground" or "Bury Your Dead", is the album's sole exception, and provides a timely reminder of what the Haunted are truly capable of. But on the whole, this is a largely forgettable collection of songs that is nowhere near in the same class as "Made Me Do It", or even "One Kill Wonder". Save yourself the trouble and take a look at At The Gates' newest effort instead.

Track list:

1. 317

2. Cutting Teeth

3. My Salvation

4. Psychonaut

5. Eye of the Storm

6. Trend Killer

7. Time (Will Not Heal)

8. All I Have

9. Temptation

10. My Enemy

11. Kill The Light

12. This War

13. Infiltration

14. Ghost In the Machine

The Damned Things - Ironiclast

Artist: The Damned Things
Album: Ironiclast
Year: 2010
Rating: 84/100

Supergroups are always a tricky beast. There's no middle ground with them; more often than not; they're either absolutely outstanding or they end up being little more than a chaotic mess. Luckily for the listener, The Damned Things fall into the former category.

Boasting Joe Trohman and Andy Hurley from Fall Out Boy (yes, really), Anthrax axe men Scott Ian and Rob Caggiano, and topped off with the melodious yet throaty holler of Keith Buckley from Every Time I Die, the Damned Things play a hedonistic blend of beer party hardcore punk coupled with plenty of rock and roll swagger and thunderous heavy metal riffs. Album opening track "Handbook For the Recently Deceased" kicks things off with the subtlety of a brick to the face, but catches the listener pleasantly off guard with its massive sing-along chorus.

While the Damned Things are solid from a musical perspective, their secret weapon is Keith Buckley. Having only sung sparingly on Every Time I Die's earlier efforts, he really steps up his game here. On "We've Got A Situation Here" and "The Blues Havin' Blues" he brings the screamed vocals back into play, whereas on "Little Darling" and "Friday Night (Going Down in Flames)" he delivers his best cleanly sung vocal performance on record to date.

The Damned Things as a collective unit tick all the right boxes for a supergroup. Their songs have an excellent cohesion to them, and the musicianship is superb. If that works for you, give them a look.

Track List

1. Handbook For the Recently Deceased

2. Bad Blood

3. Friday Night (Going Down in Flames)

4. We've Got A Situation Here

5. Black Heart

6. A Great Reckoning

7. Little Darling

8. Ironiclast

9. Graverobber

10. The Blues Havin' Blues

American Sharks - American Sharks

Artist: American Sharks
Album: American Sharks
Year: 2013
Rating: 76/100

Texan stoner/fuzz power trio American Sharks do not mess about. Their self-titled debut effort is a short, but sweet blast of monolithic guitar riffs from guitarist Will Ellis and raspy vocals from bassist and vocalist Mike Hardin, topped off with a boundless supply of raw hardcore punk energy right from the word "go".

Opening track "Iron Lungs" roars into life unrelentingly, clocking in at just a minute and a half, which, albeit short, is more than enough time for the band to get their point across. Unsurprisingly, this sets the tone for the rest of the album. "Satan's Overture Part 1" has a suitably evil intro, with some of the dirtiest guitar work on the album, while "XVI" sounds like Clutch, Red Fang and Black Flag locking horns in a three way standoff.

If there is any criticism to be levelled at "American Sharks", it's primarily that the album is far too short, clocking in at a mere 20 minutes for just 9 tracks. It's nothing groundbreaking or even original, but there's plenty here to keep the listener occupied, especially with the songs being as short as they are. Fans of Clutch, Black Flag, Red Fang, Scissorfight and Doomriders would be highly advised to check this one out.

Track list

1. Iron Lungs
2. Overdrive
3. Satan's Overture Part 1
4. Indian Man
5. XVI
6. Freak Out
7. Demon With Glass Sword
8. Cocaine
9. 11:11

Gig reviews - a short note

After having yesterday established the ground rules for how the album reviews are going to work last night, I stupidly forgot to do the same with how gig reviews will be covered. So I will use this post to establish that right now.

Normal gigs will be given an overall rating out of ten with 500 words maximum written about the event; from the opening band, to the support act, to the headliners. Festivals, however, will be handled differently, as obviously I can't watch every single band on the bill on my own. Each individual band will be given a rating along with a couple of sentences each. The same will be done for all day events where several bands will be on the bill at once.

Now that I've got all of that out of the way, I can now crack on with getting some of my own material put up on this blog!

Toby

A quick welcome

Welcome to the blog space for Hear and There music reviews. In it, I'll be writing reviews of albums that I've listened to, or gigs that I've attended. These albums will cover a wide-ranging gamut of styles of music along the contemporary musical spectrum, ranging from Americana to Doom Metal to Hip hop to Punk Rock and as many things in between as possible. (I like to keep a reasonably open mind as best I can when it comes to this sort of thing, after all.)

Rating systems and styles of reviews

How I'll be tackling the reviews will go as follows: I'll be writing 500 words tops for each album that I review, extolling its virtues or pointing out its flaws (whichever is closest to the mark for the album in question). Alongside that, each album will receive a score out of 100, which will be calculated by rating each track on the album out of 10, adding them together, then dividing that total by the number of tracks on the album. Case in point: if I were to review "Foundations of Burden" by Pallbearer, an album which has six tracks on it, the scores for the tracks would be added up together, then divided by 6.

Scores

The scoring system is a reasonably straightforward one, and will go as follows:

Below 50: Avoid

50-64: Approach with caution

65-74: Mediocre

75-84: Recommended

85-94: Highly recommended

95+: Essential listening

As I'm a reasonably open minded soul when it comes to music, these reviews will be as unbiased as I can possibly make them, although I can't offer any concrete guarantees on that!

One final note, happy reading, and feel free to offer comment and constructive criticism on my writing style, or the albums themselves.

Thanks.

Toby (Hear and There reviews main man)