ALBUM REVIEW: The Chariot – Valley Of The Sun
Picture yourself in a spit and saw dust biker bar, sweat and beer coating the walls with a barrage of high octane rock ’n’ roll coming out of the speakers. With one foot in the realms of stoner rock and the other crossing into the world of ALICE IN CHAINS style grunge, VALLEY OF THE SUN have crafted a signature sound best experienced in the depths of a dive bar. Powerful, gritty and down to earth, the Cincinnati quartet have crafted music that is seeing them steadily rise to the upper echelons of US hard rock, building a fanatical fanbase along the way. The Chariot is the eagerly-anticipated follow up to 2019’s spiritually-driven, fuzz-worshipping epic Old Gods, and it delivers the bluesy stoner riffs with the kind of gravity that could sink you to the Earth’s core.
One of the stand out features of VALLEY OF THE SUN’s sound is the grungy yet powerful vocals of Ryan Ferrier. With a Layne Staley-esque delivery of the album’s vocal melodies accompanied by the grunge-leaning guitar tones, this is stoner rock with a rougher, Midwestern edge. With this in mind there is no flurried Californian fire or southern states’ desert sun, this is gritty riffage that feels like it’s been forged by the hammers of the Ohio steel industry. The album hits like one too. Not afraid to throw their mighty riff weight around, VALLEY OF THE SUN sound as if they have gone back to their roots, moving away from the more doomy sounding Old Gods and looking more into the aggression and drive of Volume Rock. In what is essentially an anthemic reinvention of themselves, some of the riffs contained in The Chariot drip with ferocity and purpose, while the aforementioned grungy edge really gives this album its character as VALLEY OF THE SUN straddle both lines of the genre line.
Even so, there is a blues-loving heart at the core of this album, and there are definite moments where you want to get up, bang your head and move your body with furious abandonment. There is a real feel-good quality to The Chariot, which just brings limitless joy when you listen to it. With elements of psychedelic stoner and modern blues rock also being added to the genre melting pot, there are surprises round every corner. The high-energy, adrenaline-inducing, pumping rock n’ roll is captivating from start to finish. With the salt of the earth nature of the band seeping through into the songs, many people will resonate with this brand of frantic, earth-shaking rock.
Opening with a Hendrix style wah melody, Sweet Sands gets the album off to a psychedelic start before erupting into anthemic riffing that could wake giants. It is here we can really hear the uniqueness of Ferrier’s vocals, more so than on the band’s previous records. Images offers an almost waltzing groove, where the band go all out to deliver sheer power and emotion as it leads into Devil I’ve Become which ups the ante with pounding drums and fuzzing riff runs that race around your skull. Title track The Chariot opens up with a slow, chorus-soaked psychedelic intro that gives you some respite from the frantic start. It is this song that brings out the really grungy influences, with melancholic lead guitar melodies and heavenly harmonies floating over the top of hefty riffs.
Headlights feels like a punky, bluesy soundtrack to a long haul truck journey going 100mph. Gritty and dirty, it is no frills, balls-out rock and nothing more. As We Decay is a sombre ballad halfway through the album, harnessing some of the more subtle blues licks to accompany reverb-drenched acoustic sounding chords. The Flood is the sassy attitude song you need to confidently swagger down the road to, whilst album closer Colosseum is a monolithic song that amalgamates everything into four minutes of riffs, harmonies and melodies that will make you feel as if your soul has been lifted into the stoner rock ether.
VALLEY OF THE SUN’s next chapter is an exciting and inspiring one; having honed their sound to create something that is gritty, earthy, powerful and emotionally evocative in its own right, this album feels truly special. Their use of grunge elements brings something fresh to the genre as well as giving it a delightfully rough edge.
Rating: 8/10
The Chariot is set for release on June 17th via Ripple Music and Fuzzorama Records.
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