Mind Noise Network
The Bastard Sons -
Smoke
by Daniel King - 5 August 2015
If you like a good intro you're in the wrong place with the debut album from The Bastard Sons. With mere milliseconds between pressing play and being thrown ears first into the opening riffs, you're not eased into Smoke - more catapulted.
Combining stoner style vocals with some of the biggest riffs you'll hear this year, opening tracks The Bastard and Release The Hounds are a really solid opening. It manages to do something most bands would love to be able to do: It feels familiar and fresh all at the same time. Though, with riffs and vocals this dirty, I'm not sure 'fresh' is appropriate.
Opening track The Bastard has a bit of a cheesey feel to - the title spelt out to the tune of the song, but musically it's big and the contrast between the clean and shrieked vocals adds a greater depth to the proceedings. Refreshingly, the 'proper' rock vocals lead throughout the album, with the screams having a more urgent feel to them. None of the 'pop punk' ADTR-boyband style vocals here.
Release The Hounds comes up next and the story remains very much the same. Big riffs, big vocals, but less of the cheesiness. Riffs seem to be the main word being thrown around here, but that's not to say that that's all that's going on here. There drumming is powerful and forced each track along at some pace. A Lie Is A Lie continues this, combining the drumming, riffs, rhythm guitar and vocals into a track that would electrify even the biggest stage.
Sobre La Muer... Slows things down a little, showing a depth in talent that these lads have, before the assault on the dates continues with Bottom Of The Ladder. Both of these tracks fit in with the tone of the album well and feel, like the whole album, will written and recorded with a kind of care only real prior in your work can bring.
I'm Only A Call Away brings yet another reminder of this, although during the chorus they claim to be "The Fallen Sons". Maybe it was a working title for the band? U.S Against Them feels like the heaviest track on the album, although it comes and goes in a flash, flowing into Listen Here. Cardboard Walls and Scene(ic) Root(s) follow the template of the majority of tracks on the album, feeling like more than filler but not standing out to much.
Stay True sees Davey Richmond join the band for a quite beautiful track that would have served as a perfect cursing track for any other album. Not for the Bastard's though, they drop Exist-Distance to closer Smoke in similar fashion to it's opening.
A big opening, a better than solid middle and a strong ending - if The Bastard Sons were a household name there might be album of the year whispers. As it is this it's their debut and it's bloody good. Check them out, give them your support and help them rise above rest of the crowd.
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1/20
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