
Valient Thorr
Old Salt
Napalm Records
2016
Valient Thorr have been around for a few years now and they only recently came out of a contract with their former company and in a new one with Napalm Records, which seems happy enough to take the scraps of American labels tables too, trying to re-sell them over here.
Valient Thorr have beards so they are fashionable as a ticket sale to your average hippy, stoner fan... musically they seem to have scaled down a bit on this album, without exactly changing their style way too much, but going for a more bare and basic version of it… maybe the personnel changes have affected them too, but with all of them sharing Thorr surnames how should I know…
Some called their stuff the best albums they‘ve heard to which all I have to say is you‘re welcome to come browse my immense collection anytime, buster… VT’s blend of southernish rock n roll with bawdy vocals and an overall garage/punk aesthetic is neither new or amazing, although their eight or so albums have afforded them some time to hone their craft, so they can come up with the occasional OK track like “Cut and Run” or “No Count Blues”.
“Spellbroke” has a nifty enough riff, but falls by the wayside soon enough and has to repeat it… the acoustic intro “Linen Maker” lifts a bit from one of NWOBHMs lesser known bands, surprise hit, but I’ll let you figure that one yourselves – all you “experts” and the ensuing “The Shroud”, just can’t hold up with its dissonant bad vocals… this actually sounds like a bad band’s rehearsal rather than something really good, so other than a decent riff, there’s not much else to go on…
“Looking Glass” and “Jealous Gods” share a bit of the same loud and brass nature, but fail to make an impression, all the while there are two further “digital” only tracks, the pretty OK, but rather derivative, “Somnambulance” and the noisy punktastic mess that “deillumination” is that’s just a lazy bunch of electronic noises and some bizarre spoken shit on top.
Well… trite old shite, old rope, sold as something new and allegedly impressive by the same media that demands tribute to feature struggling bands, not on the “inside”… well welcome to the real world, Californian Punks, it’s gonna suck – for you.
Valient Thorr have beards so they are fashionable as a ticket sale to your average hippy, stoner fan... musically they seem to have scaled down a bit on this album, without exactly changing their style way too much, but going for a more bare and basic version of it… maybe the personnel changes have affected them too, but with all of them sharing Thorr surnames how should I know…
Some called their stuff the best albums they‘ve heard to which all I have to say is you‘re welcome to come browse my immense collection anytime, buster… VT’s blend of southernish rock n roll with bawdy vocals and an overall garage/punk aesthetic is neither new or amazing, although their eight or so albums have afforded them some time to hone their craft, so they can come up with the occasional OK track like “Cut and Run” or “No Count Blues”.
“Spellbroke” has a nifty enough riff, but falls by the wayside soon enough and has to repeat it… the acoustic intro “Linen Maker” lifts a bit from one of NWOBHMs lesser known bands, surprise hit, but I’ll let you figure that one yourselves – all you “experts” and the ensuing “The Shroud”, just can’t hold up with its dissonant bad vocals… this actually sounds like a bad band’s rehearsal rather than something really good, so other than a decent riff, there’s not much else to go on…
“Looking Glass” and “Jealous Gods” share a bit of the same loud and brass nature, but fail to make an impression, all the while there are two further “digital” only tracks, the pretty OK, but rather derivative, “Somnambulance” and the noisy punktastic mess that “deillumination” is that’s just a lazy bunch of electronic noises and some bizarre spoken shit on top.
Well… trite old shite, old rope, sold as something new and allegedly impressive by the same media that demands tribute to feature struggling bands, not on the “inside”… well welcome to the real world, Californian Punks, it’s gonna suck – for you.