vote
7.5
- Band:
THE LUNAR EFFECT - Duration: 00:40:16
- Available from: 12/04/2024
- Label:
-
Svart Records
We certainly don't discover the state of health of the European hard rock scene today, but it's certainly nice to add some new discoveries, to replenish a thriving and detailed scenario. Here we are then with the Londoners The Lunar Effect, who are not novices to be honest, having been around since 2016 and previously authors of an EP – “Strange Lands” in 2017 – and an album, “Calm Before The Calm”, the latter published in 2019. Five years later and a pandemic in between must have had some effect, in the case of The Lunar Effect it was about expanding a sound born from the meeting of stoner, hard rock and grunge, which under their expert hands expanded to become something more psychedelic, colorful and emotional.
Already with their first releases, The Lunar Effect had placed themselves on registers that could be both ardently electric and fiery, as well as subdued and placid, going in assonance with those who could be their most direct references, namely the Swedish Graveyard. A band that in its path has always made whirling rhythms and wild guitars go along with a tendency to doze off, indolence, so as to sprinkle their work with blues grease.
Now following the same path of Graveyard, the English quartet slightly dampens the charge, softens the harshness, to surrender to an interpretation of hard rock that has a lot to do with that of the storytellers. A breath of crooning that, at least in their case, does not mean giving up fuzz and thickness of the guitars, distancing themselves, to stay on topic, from the suffused Graveyard of “6”.
A colorful, dreamy but pleasantly noisy world, that of The Lunar Effect, certainly paying homage to the tradition of seventies hard rock, while maintaining that minimum detachment that contributes to giving depth to similar groups. A bit like what recently happened for Rival Sons, another reality with which assonances can be detected, reducing in part the guitar impact, or at least alternating it with dreamlike and smoky sections, gives brilliance and less obvious tones to the sound discourse.
If a song like “Flowers Of Teeth” presents the most aggressive side of The Lunar Effect, the feeling and smoothness of “Colour My World” gets under the skin better, with a long, velvety solo that sticks in your head, while the verses flow soft and absorbed, making us lose ourselves in a colorful psychedelic world. It is when they take full possession of these atmospheres, settling in happily and never leaving, that the Londoners show their best qualities. Here then also appears a piano, to accompany us docilely in “Middle Of The End”; the combination of piano and roaring guitars is full of expressiveness, showing off the talent of the guys for nocturnal sounds, faint but with verve. The mixing of hard rock registers with a more subdued touch works very well and takes slightly different turns depending on the tracks, emanating a warm and comfortable feeling.
Zeppelin tones are tainted with blues/western ballad twilights in the charming and rustic “I Can't Say”, with Josh Neuwford's vocal talent once again shining with a dirty but powerful light. He may not shine for a particularly distinctive timbre, yet he has personality and flexibility in dealing with this type of sounds, in all their nuances. Melancholic temptations finally take over in “Fear Before The Fall”, all full of yearning and with a refrain as easy as it is swinging towards sadness.
A beautiful kaleidoscope of classic rock sounds, that of “Sounds Of Green & Blue”, perhaps lacking in 'special' ingredients and mixtures, but captivating and emotionally engaging, with a series of songs written and performed magnificently. For those who can never get enough of versatile and passionate classic rock.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM