Album Review: Rival Sons Feral Roots

By Jean-Paul Cartwright.

When it was announced last year, that the new album was to be released in January, I was a bit excited and yet was also a little bit worried. Although I’m a bit of a fan, they has lost their way, the raw energy of earlier releases had gone and just didn’t full live-up to the early releases.

When they released the first single from the album back in September, Do Your Worst,  I almost knew then that it was going to be one of their best.

With a very fuzzy guitar driven sound, it certainly sounded more like their older material but with an update, certainly one of those songs with a sing-along chorus which will go down well at their shows.

Then in November, Back In The Woods, was released, which opens with a short drum solo and more fuzzy guitars courtesy of Scott Holiday.

The next track shared was the title track, Feral Roots.

The softest song on the album, opening with acoustic guitars a plenty and soft drums, with Jay Buchanan’s vocals really on form.

With Greta Van Fleet becoming popular with their Led Zeppelin sound-a-like sound, this song also reminds us of LZ, but like Greta Van Fleet, this sounds refreshing in a good way, even if there is a lot of Led influences.

Last week, right before the album’s release, they let loose the majestic Look Away.

Another song that has an obvious Zeppelin influence, opening with a soft sound but gradually builds up to a more heavy sound.

The whole album really does work well as a whole with very little filler tracks.

After being chosen as the support band to the Rolling Stones and then Black Sabbath on their farewell tour, you can only look back and think how much they got from the experience to put into their next release.

The greatest Rock Music has never been about speed or loudness, but more about the material & energy, look back at Elvis and the early Beatles songs, they were so revolutionary that they are still an influence today.

This is a beast of an album, showcasing the groups talents once again, vocally and instrumentally, this has got to be an early contender for rock album of the year, and we are still in January.

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