For a new band Monster Truck sound extremely familiar, and fabulously so. Hailing from Hamilton, Ontario, the four-piece sound exactly like a group with that name should, shepherding elephantine riffs, chest-beating vocals and gunslinger-swagger rhythms into songs purpose-built for basement keg parties, summer barbecues and bare-knuckle brawls.
And yet, like their most obvious progenitors Zeppelin, Soundgarden and Clutch, the quartet carry a soulfulness, spirituality and lightness of touch that elevates them above mere bruiser status. In the most reductive terms, Monster Truck are a classic rock band, but theirs is a sound so alive, so vibrant and so resplendent with energy and colour that it makes that epithet redundant.
From the rattling full-tilt boogie of opener Old Train through the slow-burning shimmer of For The Sun on to the gospel-flecked closer My Love Is True, the Truck never falter, and their obvious passion for their timeless art is infectious. Gentlemen, start your engines, the road awaits.
