I love an inventive headline. It’s why bands and labels employ PR firms, after all. So credit to Soundcrawler’s PR for coming up with ‘Have you heard about that French stoner rock band that sounds like a stunning mix of Soundgarden / Alice In Chains with Kyuss?’
Chances are you haven’t, and this was my first introduction to the band, too. The comparisons the the aforementioned acts, alongside Queens Of The Stone Age and Truckfighters are entirely justified: the dense riffs are rooted in blues, but overdriven and played hard. Rémi Pocquet has perfected that throaty, drawling vocal style, and while it’s by no means original, it’s perfectly suited to the music: in fact, the music wouldn’t work without it.
While the grinding riffs and angsty overtones clearly hark back to the heyday of grunge, rock music of this ilk is less about progression and more about the quality of the material and its execution, and this is where Soundcrawler prove themselves. The metal-edged chug of ‘Burning Scales’ cuts a deep groove, while the head-banging ‘A God to Feed’ hits the heavy spot nicely. When they slow it down a bit, as on the more overtly melodic ‘Civil’, which also calls to mind Peal Jam’s ‘Even Flow’, they continue to bring the weight.
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They’re not afraid to dabble in the terrain of classic rock cliché with some full-on guitar solos, but the stomping stoner riffs beneath them keep things on the right side of cool.
Soundcrawler Online
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