Sedated Angel

BeautyFall

Written by: PP on 11/01/2015 19:51:47

One of the more well-known stoner rock bands in Denmark is Kolding-based Sedated Angel. Their debut album "See The World Through Burning Red Eyes" was release back in 2008, and since then they've released a follow-up "Far Beyond Repair" in 2010 and four track EP called "Dirty Goin' Down" a year later. For their third album "Beautyfall" the band needed to look for answers on how to escape the derivative stoner rock sound and improve on the lackluster vocal performance found on its predecessor. Both things have been achieved, at least to an extent, though I'm still not quite convinced Sedated Angel can put an album's worth of consistent material together just yet.

Change from previous album is fairly obvious from the get go. Whilst the genre of choice is still stoner rock with a reasonable amount of desert rock vibes embedded within, the band have opted to alter their low-down bass groove slightly away from the fuzzy and dirty Fu Manchu / Kyuss worship and instead opt for a more guitar riff oriented approach. Both bands still exist as distinct undertones within their sound, as the opening riff sequence to the title-track so well suggests, but as soon as the vocals arrive we're in for a much smoother and more alternative rock-based approach. Grunge legends Alice In Chains and Jane's Addiction are being thoroughly referenced especially in the vocal department, which has undergone enough positive improvement to now stand on its own right. They are now smoother and more fitting to the desert rock landscape, and on a number of songs deliver a solid melody that actually has some staying power. The dreamy approach is very similar to Alice In Chains, but not identical, meaning Sedated Angel are doing a decent job trying to form an identity for themselves.

Still, there are far too many tracks which are generic stoner rock that doesn't really go anywhere. One of these is "Out Of Reach", which has plenty of groove and fuzzy guitar distortion, but the song itself just isn't a very good listen. Similarly, "Opiation" is just too ambient and experimental for its own good. I tend to skip the track every time, that is, if I get this far on the album. That's the case on way too many tracks on "Beautyfall", namely that they aren't strong enough to convince the listener why they shouldn't be listening to something else instead. This has been a recurring theme on Sedated Album releases in the past, and is still a giant stumbling stone for anyone trying to get into their music. They have a few decent tracks here which suggest massive improvement, but the album is too inconsistent to matter in the grand scheme of things.

6

Download: Beautyfall, All The Places
For the fans of: Alice In Chains, Jane's Addiction, Kyuss, Fu Manchu
Listen: Facebook

Release date 06.09.2014
Self-Released

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