RIVAL SONS
Pressure and Time
2011

By Shane Pinnegar

Some bands just pop out of the speakers fully formed and RIVAL SONS is one such freak of nature. They rock, they roll, they groove and they have soul – and what more can anyone ask of a band of rock brothers in this jaded day and age, anyway?

There’s not a lot new, necessarily, about Rival Sons though – theirs is a decidedly retro palette of sound – except perhaps how they have craftily combined their Sixties and Seventies influences into this beguiling and enticing analogue stew.

Led Zeppelin might be the primary influence here – just listen to ‘Only One’ for proof how closely they’ve followed the blueprint - but elements of early Deep Purple, The Black Crowes, and Cream swirl through the mix here and there, as do some Motown and Stax soul grooves on ‘Get Mine’ and . There’s even a few glam stompers a la T-Rex or early Suzi Quatro (‘Burn Down Los Angeles’ for one) – albeit with their Zep-heavy fingerprints all over them.

The sound throughout embraces the listener in it’s warmth – in exactly the same way those early Zep records did. There’s a decidedly revivalist feel to ‘Save Me’ that isn’t a million miles removed from Ireland’s The Answer’s recent excursions into similar (though not as directly referencing of past masters) territory, and ‘White Noise’ and ‘Face of Light’ actually sounds more like Wolfmother channelling Beck or Zep rather than Zep themselves.

Saving some of the best for last, ‘Soul’ is an absolute scorcher of soulful blues, and ‘Sleepwalker’ a slice of Steppenwolf-ish heavy blues - singer Jay Buchanan emoting for all he’s worth, and a plaintiff harmonica piercing the grind on the latter tune. “Pressure & Time” is a classy album with a lot to offer the classic rock fan – retro it may be, but whoever said retro can’t be awesome, or huge for that matter?