Earthless - Black Heaven, album review

Radar Alert

With echoes of Amboy Dukes [pre redneckness to detract from the music] and Grand Funk Railroad in and among the more generic reflections of heavy metal, this is a fine heavy rock album. Some of those ancestor sounds are in the occasional harmony vocals – not that this is unusual in heavy rock – but I just hear it, perhaps because I want to, looking for something a little different, not that it has to be. Otherwise, it is riff-driven, like Electric Flame, and in all there is much scorching guitar work by Isaiah Mitchell, and plenty of wah-wah [listen to the brisk Volt Rush for some real fire] – the drumming is dynamite. And the title track is over eight minutes of instrumental bliss.

From what I have read, this is a significant shift from their previous as a band and may alienate many fans. I wouldn’t know. Perhaps because it taps into a kind of rock I like, as hinted above with my precursor radar, I am impressed with the songwriting, singing and playing, especially that guitar gusto. Closer Sudden End again has some melodic vocal harmony in the chorus, setting up the sweet guitar soloing.