Whores & Thieves

Anti Echo Chamber

Written by: TAJ on 10/11/2012 18:02:06

Whores and Thieves is a newly founded Danish rock band ready with their debut album named “Anti Echo Chambers”, which released this week. The group has been wasting no time taking in consideration their EP “The Ugly Truth”, which was released only around four months ago, as well as finding openings for several live shows and festival appearances among other things. On the EP, Whores & Thieves presented a promising outplay of material oozing of a strong rock’n’roll attitude that now continues on “Anti Echo Chamber”.

Initially after pressing play, raw and deliciously unpolished blues rocking grooves confidently leap at the listener. Firstly during the track “Digging Holes”, where added singing from vocalist Christian Bonde changes from being delivered voluminously to a casual slothful manner, resulting in a true rock’n’roll spirited atmosphere. So when follow up “Hollow Drive” starts, which has the same feel but is speeded up a notch in tempo, the urge to physically move or to rock out becomes difficult to restrain. For the remainder of the album this vibe remains true with varieties in speed and added injections like blues and country. I would also like to highlight “Old Man’s War” for possibly being the best track at staying true to the red thread of the album while also adding memorable passages of variation. The riffs turn almost bouncy and the vocals shift into a vibrating tone slightly reminiscent of Jack White.

The choice of production is also noticeable, where the group have chosen to record each song in only one take leaving out any form of altercation or manipulation post-recording. This creates further character to the sound by applying a dirty and muddy feel to their groove. This certainly contributes to their sound and helps capture an authentic 'pure rock' mindset.

While few flaws exist, I do find the need to address some things that are open for improvement. As indicated before, the album grasps you into the rock atmosphere quite quickly. Nevertheless reaching halfway through the record, I find the otherwise strong vigour to be slowly depleting. Even though the tracks do have variety I suspect the problem arises due to the strong but quite similar groove being the backbone throughout the whole album. It would require more memorable riffs or parts standing out to avoid creating eventual dullness. Especially the middle part of the record and towards the end where the tempo is a bit more slowed down. That being said, “Anti Echo Chamber” is a strong, quality debut by Whores & Thieves, and I will surely be looking forward to their new material in the future.

Download: Old Man's War, Evelyn, For the Sake of My Condition
For the fans of: The Black Keys, Jack White, Triggerfinger, Freddy And The Phantoms.
Listen: Band's Facebook Site

Release date 08.11.2012
Trechoma Records

Related Items | How we score?
Comments
comments powered by Disqus

Legal

© Copyright MMXXIV Rockfreaks.net.