Flippin’ eck, it’s Friday – which means it’s time to sink your teeth into Classic Rock’s Tracks Of The Week. But which one is the tastiest? Last week’s winners were Goldray, followed by The Zipheads in second place and A Thousand Horses in third. Who’s it gonna be this week? Listen in, then place your vote at the foot of this page…
Volbeat – Seal The Deal
With a video like a Rocky training montage with more tattoos (and action that cuts to Volbeat on stage every so often), Seal The Deal offers the kind of crunchy XXL riffs and ‘Elvis metal’ sensibility that have propelled these guys to arena-filling stardom. Fearsome and fun.
Metallica – Atlas, Rise!
The album reviews are in! And they’re quite good!! In all seriousness though, there are some cracking moments on Hardwired…To Self Destruct, including this one. The galloping rhythm and riffage of Atlas, Rise! should come with a cry of “We ride!”, or similar – such is its hearty, ‘call-to-arms’ joie de vivre. Nice.
Gone Is Gone – Gift
Like minds from Mastodon, QOTSA and At The Drive-In have joined forces to form this new heavy supergroup. Sounds good on paper doesn’t it? Happily it works really well on record too – as Gift confirms, in all its deep, slightly menacing mystique that echoes all three originating bands without ripping them off.
Saint Agnes – Merry Mother Of God Go Round
Pleasingly stop-and-reread-it title (nice fairground-meets-God thinking guys…) behind which lurks an immediate punch of heavy, groovy fuzz, psychedelic overtones and doomy allure. A nicely dark mix of trippiness and no-nonsense hard rock weight.
Trucker Diablo – FFE
Reignited by new tunes and a successful Pledge campaign, Northern Ireland’s TD came back fighting this year (following hiatus), joined Airbourne on tour and made a brand new album of fist-pumping hard rock – Rise Above The Noise. Try this chunky, arse-kick of a boogie for starters.
Dizrhythmia – Chinese Doll
Back in the 80s Jakko Jaksyck and Gavin Harrison formed world/jazz/classical/prog fusion outfit Dizrhythmia. Fast forward three decades, Jaksyck and Harrison are now in King Crimson, and have reunited with (Dizrhythmia originals) Danny Thompson and Pandit Dinesh to make a second album; from which this melancholy blend of ambient jazz and pensive prog is taken. Mmmm proggy…
68-75 – Eye On You
The clue is in the band name. Atlanta rockers 68-75 are all about the classics of the late 60s and 70s, and it becomes them extremely well here. The likes of Free and Humble Pie are clear influences. The main riff is so Led Zeppelin-ish you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s the last bit of the Zep archive Jimmy Page hasn’t reissued yet. We like…
Danny Worsnop – Mexico
Not content with striding the worlds of metalcore (in Asking Alexandria) and classic hard rock (with We Are Harlot), Danny Worsnop has gone a bit Kid Rock for this new solo tune. OK so he won’t be challenging Dylan for that Nobel Prize anytime soon (“watching senoritas dancing on beaches”…you get the idea) but that’s hardly the point. Good laid-back, Southern-tinged fun.
