Wednesday 26 December 2018

The Oil Barons - The West Is Won (Album Review)


Release date: Early 2019. Label: Self Released. Format: CD/DD

The West Is Won – Tracklisting

The Oil Baron
Drill
Snake Oil
California City
Fuck The Sun
Don’t Touch Me
Hot Cake
VITCH
King Vulture
Suicide Machine

Members

Lou Aquiler - Guitar
Andrew Huber - Bass/Lead Vocals
Jake Hart - Drums/Vocals

Review

The Oil Barons debut album – The West Is Won is inspired by Paul Thomas Anderson classic movie There Will Be Blood. So you have a concept album based within the world of OIL PRODUCTION and all the joys and pitfalls that industry brings you. Unless it’s influenced by DALLAS and the guys are trying to be all intellectual. I’m kidding.

Anyway this is one album that sounds like it suffers from an identity crisis when you first listen to the album. As the band play a heavy mixture of Blues Rock, Classic Rock, Stoner Metal, Doom Metal and even Desert Rock. If you’re a fan of bands such as Black Sabbath and CLUTCH then these guys should definitely be on your radar.

The West Is Won a brilliantly entertaining album packed full of thrills and (oil) spills with the band writing some progressive sounding riffs and OTT lyrics to match. The opening songs The Oil Baron, Drill and Snake Oil show that The Oil Barons have a deep and rich creative sound and when matched against the superb lyrics then a Stoner Metal/Doom Metal album based on There Will Be Blood isn’t so crazy after all.

The album has a deceptively old-school feel to it and that allows The Oil Barons to experiment with their sound on the later stages of the album. The vocals from Andrew are influenced by the Americana scene at times but still remaining in the Doom/Stoner Metal world. Jake provides solid back-up vocals along with his highly accurate and precise drumming.

The Oil Barons continue playing their heavy Blues Rock inspired Stoner/Desert/Doom hybrid sound for the remainder of the album and they will keep you entertained with other cool songs such as California City, Fuck The Sun, VITCH and the final epic song Suicide Machine which ventures into some pretty dark places which I didn’t expect.

The production is handled superbly well and the album sounds fresh and lively from the start. The music is very direct and you become part of the whole environment. Though it may take you a few listens to fully understand and actually enjoy the overall album. After that happens you’ll be amazed at how much of a good time you will have this with album.

Excellent and Highly Recommended.

Words by Steve Howe

Thanks to The Oil Barons for the promo. The West Is Won will be available to buy on CD/DD in 2019.

Check out the awesome new video for VITCH from the forthcoming new album The West Is Won



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