Tuesday 17 November 2015

Sonic Medusa - The Sunset Soundhouse Tapes - (EP Review)


Release date: October 05th 2015. Label: Ripple Music Format: CD/DD

The Sunset Soundhouse Tapes – Tracklisting

1.Cold Wind 07:56
2.Wolf's Prayer 07:01
3.Goblin Suite 06:49
4.Medusa 04:01

Band Members:

Steve Darrow -Guitar
Greg Rogers -Drums
Dirty D -Vocals, Guitar
Scott Renner -Bass

Review:

Evoking the spirit of a halcyon period for American Hard Rock, LAs Sonic Medusa have a penchant for the kind of hazy and smoke filled riffs that the likes of Blue Cheer, Lynyrd Skynrd and Pentagram are renowned for and these influences mixed in with an unbridled love for classic Sabbath, Maiden and Motorhead makes for a heady sonic brew.

Sonic Medusa whose member have served time in The Obsessed, Goatsnake, White Zombie and Sourvein to name just four and with this amount of metal pedigree, Sonic Medusa know all about the power of the riff and how to use it to maximum effect and the Sunset Soundhouse Tapes is pack full of so many Iommi worshipping riffs it's enough to make any metal fan want to bang their head relentlessly in joyous praise.

Sonic Medusa waste no time in unleashing their straight ahead blast with the opening track Cold Wind, a track that commences with a riff that could have straight from Iron Maiden or Killers although that is soon usurped by a more dominating doomy stoner riff, a supremely fuzzy tone with powerful vocals and an anthemic and massive solo to it, add to this a pulsating rhythmic jam that carries the majority of Cold Wind and a melancholy end complete with a Sabbath-esque Thunder and rain sample and you have a recipe for brilliance

This brilliance continues throughout the EP and it becomes apparent just how massive these songs are, often seeming like two or three songs combined into one due to the number of musical twists and turns that each song takes, The epic and outstanding Goblin Suite for example features a doomy crawl offset by a powerful drawl that segues seamlessly into some Thin/Lizzy Iron Maiden style twin guitar duelling before ending on a proto doom vibe while Medusa starts with what sounds like the start of the Stones Sympathy For The Devil before a blazing metal wail arrives and then transforms into a free form rock jam.

Wolfs Prayer is the most straight forward song on here, a rocking song that starts with a mellow classical guitar before a pounding riff thrusts the song into orbit and gives it a an anthemic quality, completed immensely with some soaring vocals.

The bands knack for melding that classic doom sound with a proto metal feel works extremely well and the no nonsense and organic live feel that The Sunset Soundhouse Tapes has makes for an extremely enjoyable listen, this is no frills and in your face metal made for metal fans by metal fans and it doesn't matter if you're a fan of heavy metal, doom metal, stoner metal or whatever, it's all in here and it sounds great and above all it sounds fun and you can tell the band are having as much of a blast making it as you will when listening to it.

Words by Gavin Brown

Thanks to Richard at Sheltered Life PR for the promo. The Sunset Soundhouse Tapes is available to buy digitally now and will be available to buy physically from December 11th 2015 via Ripple Music.

Links:

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