Review by Gary Spiller for MPM
Good things come to those who wait as the proverb states. So, given the journey that has been undertaken to get Stone Angels’ sophomore album release to the starting line then we are in for something right off the scale! These hard-rocking lads don’t rush things for sure.
A lengthy and arduous five years, full of personal and musical challenges, have elapsed since the Brighton-based quartet began laying down the initial building blocks of ‘Up In Smoke’. Astonishingly it’s just a whisker shy of a full ten years since the band’s debut release ‘Give in to Temptation’ was unshackled back in 2014.
When I interviewed guitarist James Innes and bassist Sam Sayers back at the tail-end of February, just ahead of the release of ‘Up In Smoke’ I stated that this long-player was destined to be “one of my favourites of 2024.” Somewhat late to the party – two months late in fact! – my forthcoming words will cement this statement further.
Hitting pedal-to-the-metal highways, rocking from ascending southern epics all the way to hard punching grungy basement-dwelling monsters Stone Angels is a multi-faceted gem no doubt of it. With multi-platinum award-winning producer Mike Krompass (Steven Tyler, Desmond Child, Honeymoon Suite, Natasha Bedingfield to name a but a few) at the helm what we have, herein, is a mega-production right across the album’s nine tracks.
This long-player is upon a lofty level inhabited by the likes of Nickelback; three months ago I described this release, in overall terms, as “opulent and majestic yet not overbearing” before furthering “Stone Angels hit the ring in a pugnacious mood.” These words have carried forwards in an emphatic manner having, first-hand, witnessed the collective force majeure that is Stone Angels live at Swansea’s Station 18 Festival.
Dialling in through the crackling static the deep-south intro of ‘Where The Crows Fly’ alloys with grunge-driven grooves that drives through ice and fire. Wondering what Lynyrd Skynyrd and Pearl Jam’s bastard offspring would have sounded like? This track will form a large part of the truly hard-hitting answer I believe. “Don’t hang me out to die underneath this burning sky” implores vocalist Niall Kersey.
‘Gambler’ explodes, most appropriately, with drummer Loz Ford’s percussive avalanche as the band forcefully explore Ford’s nighttime alter-ego of a professional poker player. With much rolling of dice and snatching more than just a card from the Devil’s hand Stone Angels effortlessly shift up through the gears. “We’re all just stuck in this game!” notes Kersey; but what a game it is! A quaking of Nickelback’s finery.
With what strikes me as a 70s glam-rock underpinning ‘Hold On’ rages with a snarling riffery before the thought provoking ‘Up In Smoke’ goes deep into therapeutic dimensions. Extending exploring tendrils into doomy, darkened nooks Stone Angels apply a tender hand upon the tiller.
Innes acknowledges that the album’s title track was the most challenging he’s written. Facing the gut-wrenching sight of witnessing his home being destroyed by a ravaging fire the guitarist noted “With the support of my wife, bandmates, family, and friends I was able to heal. It was my way of making a silver lining to that smoke cloud.”
Arenaceous in its very nature ‘Halfway To Nowhere’ is the highest of points in an album absolutely rammed full of them. The equivalent of Andorra where the country’s low point is, in fact, a high point in itself. Wistful and chilled-out the metaphorical soft-top is fully down and with shades donned we’re more than ready for the road-trip across the desert expanses.
‘Over The Edge’ surges right out of LA with all the bluster of primetime GnR and Crüe packed into the track’s sub four-minute confines. Spilling forth the energies unrestrained take no prisoners. ‘Ghost Of New York’ eases off the accelerator in terms of tempo but none of the intensity dissipates. Channelling a focus, in a similar way to that which Red Hot Chilli Peppers did within ‘Under The Bridge’, we are taken by the hand through the hazy streets of the eastern seaboard city.
With a rasping intro slightly redolent of Rainbow’s ‘All Night Long’ penultimate number ‘Supercharged’ does what is upon the exterior of the metaphorical tin. Highly revving and with nitrous coursing through the veins we awake in a drunken daze, losing track of the days themselves. Powering in top gear we’re hauled through the night at the cylinders pound as a metalliferous orchestra.
‘Western Dreams’ closes out ‘Up In Smoke’ in a fine, polished manner with the keys adding a flavoursome coruscant element that shimmers gloriously. A splendid finale to a splendid album; just don’t leave it so long for the next one please gents!
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