I can count on one hand how many new bands that can come across my musical radar now that I actually dig(AlterBridge and Rival Sons would be two). For me I always go back to the classics. I think someone somewhere said I was musically frozen in the 80s! Haha…Fair Point and in a musical sense yeah for the most part.
Monster Truck hailing from fellow blog reader “Bop’s” backyard of Hamilton Ontario are one of those new acts that with their second full length release Sittin Heavy have kicked my ass with a Furiousity (Ha!) so swift that I can’t believe how friggin good this album is….
Jon Harvey(Lead Vocals and Bass) Jeremy Widerman(Guitar) Brandon Bliss(Keys) and Steve Kiely(Drums) lay down a Sonic Boom that wallops you outside the head with some good old-fashioned Hard Rock!
The Truck fuses to my ears that is the classic hard rock sounds of the 70s. The Truck skip all the fancy trimmings and trappings of the 80s and take hold of the sonics of the early 90s and there you have it! A sound that is all their own and one that is loud!
Monster Truck say Don’t Fuck With The Truck…I say ‘Yep!’
WHY ARE YOU NOT ROCKING?-“Allright! Good To Go!” is said by perhaps Jon and The Truck blast right out of the gate with Steve on the drums setting the table with a 4 on the floor stomper with Jeremy blasting quick shot of guitar riffs between verse’s. Jon delivers a great gruff rock vocal and slams his bass in overdrive while Brandon knows his place with his keyboard! He adds to the sonic boot camp known as Monster Truck! Love this tune! It’s fast it’s furious and it leaves you wanting more!
DONT TELL ME HOW TO LIVE-Truck delivers a real good hard rock single! This tune delivers the goods great verse a little on the tough rock side but by the chorus Jon sings a real smooth chorus. Love the mix and production courtesy of Eric Ratz. The band knows it’s place when writing these kind of radio rock tunes. Keep an eye and ear on keeping things nice and clean but toss in some loud drums and a fuzz guitar to not lose the street cred! Well done boys!
SHE’S A WITCH-Think Black Sabbaths After Forever during the verse’s. Man the guitar riff is so good! Top notch and this is jam 101 at Monster Truck Central! This song just flat-out rocks and also features a real good lead vocal! The song builds up and up and is so good seriously this album is ridiculously awesome!
FOR THE PEOPLE -This currently is my favourite track! We all know that these cats can play but man listen to the harmonies on this tune as I posted the video to it! It’s a good time feel good number! Kick Evil in the Ass and rise up people! This song just grooves with a real cool guitar work courtesy of Jeremy and special guest Ian Thornley(snappy slide guitar). All of the Truck guys can sing and man oh man they all look like brawlers but the Truck can kick your arse in different ways than just fists!
BLACK FOREST-Some nice Keyboard work by Brandon and Black Forest is a chill out track but thanks for some cool fuzz out heavy action guitar this makes the song far from wimping out! Nice build up from the verses Into the chorus.
ANOTHER MANS SHOES-Man this tune reminds me of like your were to take Deep Purples Perfect Strangers album and shoot it with a syringe full of steroids and boom here’s Another Man’s Shoes. The drums laid down by Steve sound like Steve Gorman slamming his drums on the second Black Crowes studio album ‘Southern Harmony”. These boys can chill out in Black Forest but ramp up things in a huge sonic boom like explosion in Another Man’s Shoes!
THINGS GET BETTER-Real cool piano begins this tune and leads the charge with a quick tempo. Monster Truck lead the charge with a lot of positive lyrics on this song and For The People. Love the chorus! Tempo change and they in the process keep the Truck on the road!
THE ENFORCER-Listen to that goal siren wail and The Enforcer will smash your teeth in! Honestly this is as close to Canadian on here as it gets. The lyrics tell the tale of the a fighter. Broken noses,missing teeth it’s all here. The song grooves with a ferocity that rocks with a bunch of ear candy like “Whoah Whoahs” sung and some stinging guitar work by Jeremy during the verses leads the way. Great song and makes me wanna break things. Hahaha….no not really I’m just trying to be tough!
TO THE FLAME-Is a big fuzzed up rock track and as Jon sings “There’s no way Outta here!” This tune is a late night after hours jam out tune! Big sonics rock this track! Heavy Jon Lord Like keys! Scott Holiday like fuzzed up loud guitar. Heavy Devy Drums and a knarly like lead vocal. People this is heavy rock delivered with style and flair
NEW SOUL-4 on the floor stomper! More straight ahead Truck stop rock and it drives a nice quick speed. Rock n Roll at its simple best. Just a great rock track with a heavy fuzzed up like rock shuffle. New Soul rocks….
ENJOY THE TIME-Brandon plays a real slick keyboard pattern on this tune and it totally reminds me of Paul Raymond of UFO fame style and there’s the 70s influence showing and the beginning of this song with Jeremy on guitar which is total Paul Chapman UFO not Schenker UFO. But that’s where the comparison ends. “Enjoy The Time We Had Friends Together” sings Jon and for all the rock that this guy sings on this album he can chill out and take a breather. Nice end of the album wrap up and this album is so good just push repeat and play the damn thing again!
FINAL YAMMER- I preordered this back in early December(2015) and iTunes dropped down three songs quick from this album but I didn’t want to hear them until I got the other 8 songs as I want to hear it as whole, not as a single hear a single their kind of deal.
Man this album cooks and I’m totally blown away by it. I was expecting a pretty good album but what I heard was a frigging Awesome album that fuses all things of Rock that I likey!
Monster Truck blend a ton of influence’s but still keeping an ear to the ground and forging a sound of their own! That’s the best thing I can say about them …..
Must thank Bop as well for the info on the Ian Thornley guest appearance as ITunes did not drop down the digital booklet (Meh) with this release.
Look forward to checking out this killer band here in Tbay tomorrow night!
Live Review will be coming up shortly!
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