vote
6.5
- Bands:
RESTLESS SPIRIT - Duration: 00:39:57
- Available from: 05/08/2026
- Label:
-
Magnetic Eye Records
The Restless Spirit formula always remains the same and is also proposed in this new album, the fourth in the discography, as well as an album that bears the group's name as its title. A formula that brings to our readers a heavy metal/sludge that always recalls Mastodon in a very present way, with stoner, desert if not directly seventies-type doom veins, with distant airs that recall Black Sabbath.
On the one hand, the band is commendable for continuing its journey with its head down without feeling tempted to stray from what it has been capable of doing for a long time; it must be said, however, that the three from Long Island are rather derivative and obvious. There isn't a different twist that is one, but, all things considered, for what Restless Spirit intend to do and propose, this time too they bring home the result.
And so we find ourselves with a dry album, without frills, rather dry and which doesn't spill over into unlikely attempts at innovation which would probably do much worse than the proposed heavy canon. All in all, the songs are there, the album can be listened to thanks to pieces like “Red In Tooth And Claw” or “The Burning Need” (although this one is too gigantic), and even in the face of boring moments like “Desire Lines”, with a decent solo but a verse that is far too flat, the quality always remains at a level; let's mention perhaps the best of the lot, “Time And Distance”, a good expressive song capable of weaving desert riffs with a tension that is always well supported.
There's little to say: taken for what it is, the album is pleasant, it could brighten up an evening at the pub as well as a 3pm slot at some festival, and certainly have a certain success, but that's all. A handful of songs written with coherence, played well, sung well, which we will probably forget by the time we finish writing these lines.
A record like this “Restless Spirit” is certainly better, where the songs are all 'average' but there isn't a piece that is truly bad, compared to certain attempts that alternate peaks and ugliness. In the end, the Americans took home a full pass this time too, because we will never dislike working-class bands like this.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
