When it comes to recreating the classic rock vibe of yore, there are few bands out there that do it quite so convincingly as these dedicated Aussies – they’re so authentic in their approach you can almost smell the whisky, weed and gasoline fumes infused into the sonic DNA of these tunes.
Shamelessly borrowing from Purple, Cream and Free, and giving the riffs a slight Tom Morello and Kim Thayil twist the result is both soulfully bluesy and bone-crunchingly modern.
Add in Rusty Brown’s soulful hollering and the vintage package is pretty much complete and hard to resist, whether it’s the brief and ripping stop-start fury of All Eyes On Me, the incendiary soloing liberally thrown into opener OIC, or the slinky, sinister groove of Lies, Electric Mary do their damnedest to, well, electrify.
To find any fault with such an enjoyable formula seems churlish, but if EM can rein in the desire to get carried away sometimes when it comes to the overly complex riffing and just let the songs and hooks breathe a little, then they’d be nigh on unstoppable.
Niggles aside, III is exactly the kind of album it should be mandatory for every CR reader to own.
