Labels: Riot Season
Review by: Alex Deller
What a splendid and sumptuous thing this is. A vast, oily pool of murk that crashes blithely between thundersome, brute-force riffing, Yowish noise-rock caterwauling and introspective bouts of fizzling, nape-tingling ambience. Perhaps the closest point of reference would be a more lumpen, less artful (note: this is NOT a criticism!) take on the terrain Oxbow were mapping out with ‘An Evil Heat’, and the fact that Eugene Robinson lends his distinctive vocals to one track is more than a little telling. Regardless of their varied pool of influences ‘Sowberry Hagan’ is very much its own beast, a bizarrely triumphant confluence of sounds and styles that’s as comfortable clubbing you roughly round the head with an over-sized Iommian riff as it is melting your mind with wheedling sax runs or errant banjo licks.