Party rockers The Karma Effect get a powerful second wind on Promised Land

The Karma Effect might not be reinventing the hard rock wheel, but there's plenty of rabble-rousing to be found on their second album

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The Karma Effect: Promised Land cover art
(Image: © Earache Records)

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Since forming in the early days of the pandemic, unable to play live at first, London quintet The Karma Effect have made regular appearances on festival bills, and this first album for new label Earache deserves to further raise their profile, even if it makes no claims towards reinventing the hard-rock wheel.

Where they do show creative flair is in not relying on shuffle riffs and rabble-rousing choruses like those found on opening statement of intent Livin’ It Up or the Poison-esque Wild Honey. 

Instead they skilfully reach a little further to draw on influences from adjacent musical milieux, as on the likeably gospel-inflected rock’n’soul testimonial Be My Salvation, power ballad Falling For You Again and southern rock romp See You Again.

Promised Land? That might be pushing it a little, but it’s a fun place to spend an hour of your time.

Johnny Sharp
Johnny Sharp

Johnny is a regular contributor to Prog and Classic Rock magazines, both online and in print. Johnny is a highly experienced and versatile music writer whose tastes range from prog and hard rock to R’n’B, funk, folk and blues. He has written about music professionally for 30 years, surviving the Britpop wars at the NME in the 90s (under the hard-to-shake teenage nickname Johnny Cigarettes) before branching out to newspapers such as The Guardian and The Independent and magazines such as Uncut, Record Collector and, of course, Prog and Classic Rock.