Doublestone

Wingmakers

Written by: BV on 04/11/2013 21:25:12

I seem to be reviewing a lot of doom/stoner/heritage rock albums in these recent times, and the latest album from Doublestone (their debut full-length, I might add) is really no exception to this veritable plethora of releases these genres are seeing nowadays. However, it seems only natural to receive an album within the heritage-rock genre that finally comes from Denmark – having already seen the genre blossom in Sweden (Witchcraft, Graveyard), Germany (Kadavar) and The UK (Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats), it seems to be well on the way to reach what you might call a full-circle in Northern Europe as the genre is steadily gaining a foothold. Naturally, the inspiration from the renowned heritage-rock ‘re-inventors’ in Witchcraft, as well as from the German front in the form of Kadavar, is abundant yet not entirely overwhelming - nor surprising.

The up-tempo album opener “Save Our Souls” is, in essence, kind of rough sounding. It’s easy to hear that this band does not yet possess, neither do they seemingly want, the mass appeal of a band like Graveyard. Instead, the focus seemingly lies on the crunchy, recognizable riff and the steady groove that could easily be jammed on and drawn out for an eternity. – Whilst luckily never lasting that long, which is quite fortunate for the not-so-psychedelic listener. In the light of the relatively decent album opener, Doublestone fare increasingly better on “The Bringer of Light” which has a great riff to it, as well as a hypnotic set of vocals. The track benefits greatly from the organ that has been added for atmospherics, as it serves to beef up the track during the quite riveting guitar solo. – Which is, of course, delivered in a delightfully distorted and echoing fashion.

Two of the album’s strongest tracks, “In the Forest” and “Born Under a Hollow Moon”, come off as sounding like a mixture of Witchcraft and Kadavar, with some Leaf Hound thrown in there for good measure, as the driving drums and the groovy bass-lines seem to be of the essence here when the guitar takes on a slightly laid-back role in the verses – especially on the latter track. I can’t blame them though, as the rhythm section alone contains such a cool groove that it doesn’t really tarnish the sound to only ‘sprinkle’ a few guitar bits on it here and there.

However, the title track, “Wingmakers”, is perhaps one of the best tracks on the album as I can’t really help myself from tapping my foot to the rhythm of the highly infectious riff. As the lyric “Trapped in eternity / no sign of light / a floating entity / drawn away to the other side” enters, I must admit I’m sold to this simple blend of semi-psychedelic imagery of the lyrics and the powerful riff that sounds like something straight out of the 70’s – due in no small part to producer Tony Reed’s magic touch.

When all is said and done though, there are always things to work on and this album is no exception. Most of the tracks are downright catchy, yet some of them do seem to fall a bit behind as they sound somewhat inferior to the others. “The Endless Line” and “Save Our Souls” are perhaps the two weakest tracks on the album, as I found them hard to get into and somehow not as genuinely good as the rest of the album. So to sum up, I think Doublestone have made a genuinely interesting album and despite the fact that they will not have the same mass appeal as Graveyard, Witchcraft or Kadavar anytime soon, I still think they can be proud of this album and the amount of work that went into it. Furthermore, it only seems fitting to also establish that Tony Reed of Mos Generator has worked wonders for their sound as the band comes off as being in an entirely different league than they were in last year, when they released their debut EP. If this development continues, I’d daresay that Doublestone is a band one should be on the lookout for within this genre.

8

Download: Wingmakers, In the Forest, The Bringer of Light, III III III (Götterdämmerung)
For The Fans Of: Witchcraft, Leaf Hound, Kadavar, Pentagram, Mos Generator
Listen: facebook.com

Release Date 06.11.2013
Levitation Records


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