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Written
by Charles Hatton, posted by blog admin
As if delivered
to the future in H.G. Wells’ own personal time machine, Heavy America’s …Now is the powerhouse, rock n’ roll
answer to the polished folk/progressive rock polluting the airwaves. Mumford and Sons, The Lumineers, Of Monsters
and Men seem to be the only names getting the major label nods and widespread
audience attention. Though not terrible
bands, these artists are not quite my cup of tea and it’s hard to find bands
incorporating blues, country and folk inspirations into more bombastic,
memorable hard rock. Heavy America takes
the current stereotype and turns it upside down. They’ve got a sprawling appeal that could
hook in fans of completely different though somehow kindred acts like The
Decemberists, Across Tundras, Wolfmother, Howling Rain and even early
Witchcraft.
Led by
guitarist/vocalist/keyboardist Mike Seguin, drummer/percussionist Dan Fried and
bassist Budd Lapham, Heavy America are a mercurial power trio hellbent on
infiltrating eardrums with a stampede of rustling rock n’ roll fervor. The atmosphere is dusky yet uplifting on
lead-off jam “Proud Shame.” Seguin’s
decipherable, powerfully intoned vocals conjure images of days gone by atop
windswept guitar melodies, canyon wide bass lines and vigorous drumming. Sullen melodies are prominent but fearsome
stoner riffs keep the haunting meditations from boredom; a stark contrast of
booming guitar work and introspection make for some lively progressions. Dirt-encrusted grooves and an extended outro
jam with a powder keg solo lick render “Bleed Mary” a potent piece of
hickory-cooked rock in its own right.
The chorus is succinct, angry and plenty heavy, offsetting the dreamy
verses and psychedelic instrumental bridge (heard during the second half) with swipes
of mental violence.
“Pray for Me”
distills the band’s knife-edged choruses into a track completely absorbed in
the ways of classic, road-burning riff n’ roll.
If Slint’s swirling space rock took a tumble into a vat of moonshine, it
would probably end up sounding something like this. Stop/start blues meets acidic noise-rock
tinges on the groovy roll of “Sweet Kisses.”
There’s a math-y, unpredictable shove going in the twitchy rock riffs,
swinging bass curves and raucous shuffle beats that makes its melodic shamble
eerier than it has a right to be. On
“Casting Stones” Heavy America plod their way through a hulking epic with
lengthy, melodic drones ringing of vintage country n’ western music before a
pummeling wall of riffs spirals the music into a bottomless abyss of sludgy
curmudgeon.
Elsewhere,
“Goliath” stirs up the primordial ooze for a head-down hard rock rapture with plenty
of blues tendencies, “I Can Take It” borrows from the buzzing book of
psychedelic rock written by Hawkwind and Monster Magnet, “Heavy Eyes” trots
along like Neil Young lost in Seattle and Achilles Fail” riffs with the best of
them.. All around, Heavy America never
miss a step on …Now, a primal rock
album that pulls no punches and takes no prisoners.
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