Pale Grey Lore - Pale Grey Lore (2016)
Though this album was originally
released last summer, it's picked up some new attention with Kozmic
Artifactz' plan to put out a vinyl release of it via their Oak Island
Records imprint. Given Kozmic Artifactz' reliable track record (no puns intended, I swear), it seemed worth our time to give a listen to
these lads from Ohio. For a debut, the self-titled album has a nice,
strong, confident stride to its style, from the opening track's
brandished chords to the final moments of closer “Grave Future”
and the trippy invitations it contains.
The music does a fun job of blending
modern stoner doom with joyful '70s heavy rock tonality, with the
beats and rhythms further swirling the lines between those two big
influences. Stuff like the southern-fried grooves of “Black Sun
Rise” had me in mind of Mountain, for example, while the touch of
Deep Purple, Blue Cheer, and Iron Butterfly can be felt in various
other places in the album. And like so many of those albums from
yesteryear, the guitarist manages to give his instrument a sense of
its own life, at times not so much playing as singing through its
strings.
And the rhythms are similarly new but
familiar, often managing to get my head swaying along within a few
moments of kicking into the song. While not exactly uplifting, there
is a warmth and friendliness to the music that does a lot to help it
quickly connect to the right spots for fans of heavy rock, and the
details of the music are thick enough that on repeat listenings, you
can either let yourself sink into the grooves or pick away at all the
little things happening, depending on your mood at the time. In any
event, it's a damn good start for this group, and one which has me
hoping to hear more from them in the near future.
~ Gabriel
For Fans Of; Acid King, Ancient
Warlocks, Desert Suns, JPT Scare Band, Wizard Smoke
~
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