Saturday 10 March 2018

BORT - Crossing The Desert (Album Review)


Release date: 06th April 2018. Label: Self Released. Format: CD/DD

Crossing The Desert - Tracklisting

1.White Desert Sun
2.The Beerfields of Bridgeview
3.Worldbane
4.Hello, Mr. Thompson
5.Sacraments & Bayonets
6.Lady Kyteler
7.Well Respected Man
8.The Flood
9.Soul Eater

Pyreship - Members

Josh Percy - Lead Vocals
Brandon Corness - Guitar, Vocals, Organ
Andrei Pavlov - Guitar
Crouton McGinn - Bass, Vocals, Violin
Ian Alvarez - Drums, Vocals

Review

BORT is a Canadian Psych Desert/Stoner Rock Band with a distinctive sound of their own. Their debut album Crossing The Desert sees the band trying their hand at different styles of Desert/Stoner Rock. It's quite a lively and highly accomplished affair with BORT taking influence from the usual legendary bands of the scene. Though BORT add a more experimental and progressive feel to their music.

Opening track - White Desert Sun - is a superb instrumental song with the band adapting a cool Post-Rock persona before venturing into the familiar heavy Desert/Stoner Metal sound. Second track - The Beerfields Of Bridgewater - is a very cool song indeed with BORT merging Post-Rock atmospherics and heavy amounts of Desert/Stoner Rock sounds. Josh’s vocals are quite raw and match the Desert Rock vibes superbly well. The psychedelic noises allows the band to create a soothing atmosphere at times but these moments don't last long before the heavy pounding drums of Ian keeps the mood more modern.

The lyrics are your usual Desert/Stoner Metal fare but they do add a sense of urgency at times. Maybe the sound of the album relies too much on the legendary "Kyuss" sound but which Stoner Rock/Metal band doesn't. In BORT's defence at least they mix things up a bit.

The groove laiden guitars of Brandon and Andrei and Crouton on Bass is another one of the albums highlights. As the guitars add extra steel and grit to BORT's overall sound. Songs such as Worldbane, Hello Mr. Thompson and Lady Kyteler sees BORT offer a more theatrical style of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal. The whole flow and feel of the album is still rooted in Desert/Stoner Rock but that doesn't stop BORT adding different elements of music into the mix. Worldbane is perhaps one of my favourite songs on the album as this has an early Red Fang feel.

The lyrics are very tongue in cheek at times but BORT offer a heavy and fast-paced experience that Red Fang used to do back in the day. The production on the album is great for the most part. There are a couple rough moments with the vocals at times but maybe this is intentional. Mainly to show how BORT would sound like in the real world.

The majority of the songs on the album run past the five minute mark though BORT does offer one eight minute track with the superb sounding final track Soul Eater. This is another one of the albums standout tracks as BORT unleashes one final round of Progressive Psych Desert/Stoner Rock that will leave you wanting more. Crossing The Desert should hopefully get BORT noticed within the Desert/Stoner Rock community.

As I feel there's a lot more to their overall sound that's been created here. I want to see how they progress with their sound on future releases. Until then Crossing The Desert deserves to be heard by the biggest audience possible.

Excellent and Highly Recommended.

Words by Steve Howe

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