Review – Thumlock “Emerald Liquid Odyssey”
album through Highbeam Music
Thumlock are back with the
third of the Thumlock Chronicles, the second of which, their “Lunar Mountain Sunrise” mini-album, came
to our attention late in May this year. This release, “Emerald
Liquid Odyssey” through Highbeam Music,
follows much in the same path as the last outing but includes more influences
from the era from which they draw most of their muse – heavy music of the early
1970s.
While retaining the
sounds that made up the last outing, namely Black
Sabbath, Hawkwind and Blue
Cheer, I found myself listening to other bands of the era, including Pink
Floyd, Queen
and Status
Quo.
The album also has more of an up-beat throughout – while Lunar
had a more methodical, plodding pace, Emerald picks up the pace a notch.
But quite basically, “Emerald
Liquid Odyssey” rocks like no other. The pace is maintained steadily until Railroad
Sunset sets the lower-tempo scene for the aforementioned closer but the
band’s established genre continues without question: “Chunky bottom-end
guitars, intricate drum fills (and) short vocal bursts… in favour of guitar
virtuosity….” as one
reviewer said of the last outing. The crystal-clean production is the only
non-1970s aspect of this otherwise period recording: the wide separation and
buzzing lead-noises at strategic points couple with constant guitar- and
vocal-effects to create the crowning moment in the Thumlock Chronicles trilogy.