RSS Feed


VALLEY OF THE SUN
Electric Talons Of The Thunderhawk

Fuzzorama (2014)
Rating: 6/10

With an album title like Electric Talons Of The Thunderhawk, it wouldn’t surprise me if this bunch of rockers had spent too much time getting baked under the hot sun they speak of in their stoned moniker.

Emerging from the cosmic cradle of Cincinnati, Ohio, this dramatic ensemble of mammoth-steering musicians have clearly spent their early years high on the sounds of the likes of Kyuss, because this debut full-length record is the sort of spaced out, dippy hippy trippy groover that should please fans who have spent their acid days in a daze of such cumbersome company.

Partly southern, partly doom-laced, forever sun-scorched, layered in silt and weed and sharing the same open-back truck as Corrosion Of Conformity and just about every other stoner-groove band to follow, Valley Of The Sun do a half-decent job of billowing out velvet-soaked riffs which are simple, heavy and above all cracked by the blistering rays of joy.

More than happy to slap a bit of sizzling funk on their parched skin, Valley Of The Sun do not even attempt the original but instead are all about getting down and dirty and soooo high on those Black Sabbath riffs that we’ve heard umpteenth times before. With tracks such as ‘Centaur Rodeo’ – with its New Wave Of British Heavy Metal bass gallop – or the upbeat jerk of ‘Maya’, there is an air of the simple about the weight of this trio.

For me this is a no frills affair given extra edge by the vocal variations of guitarist Ryan Ferrier who one moment will attempt the scream the house down, the next seeming to dwell in simmering moodiness. Either way, his style fits in nicely with the cool riffage and kickin’ drum prods of Aaron Boyer.

Although the sun-blessed jig of ‘Worm Teeth’ takes a while to spill its satanic seed, when the band gets going there is a hue that seems to have been scraped off the back of Soundgarden at its murkiest and yet Corrosion Of Conformity at its cleanest. Even so, the guitar sound is one that shoots from the wall of sound like some sort of fizzing galactic laser as the band kicks in with a straight-up, balls-to-the wall rock ’n’ roll frenzy with ‘The Sleeping Sand’, while a behemoth boogie introduces itself with the swaggering ‘Gunslinger’ which is bolstered by Ryan McAllister’s solid bass drive.

There’s certainly enough groove here to keep you sun-tanned for a week, but it’s a stain which soon fades as the band fails to deliver a real knockout punch because none of the tracks seem epic enough to stand alone. This means that in spite of its fabulous title, Valley Of The Sun’s debut album is not the devilish smorgasbord I expected but one that seems to exist as one long case of sunstroke. With riffs almighty but little else to impress, this trio has a long way to go before they can consider themselves as contenders as groove-rock upstarts, let alone kings of the sun.

Neil Arnold

<< Back to Album & EP Reviews



Related Posts via Categories
Share