Under normal circumstanced I would bore you with tons of details about the origin of the band Stonecollar. They hail from Cape Town South Africa and I consider that very cool, but I couldn’t get by their old school guitar driven rock to be bothered looking up metal bands from South Africa. The fact is sometimes the back story doesn’t matter if the music is this damn good.
For those of you who are interested in the band you can check out www.stonecollar.co.za and find information on their recent online successes and their reputation for putting on one hell of a live performance. Stonecollar is a very professional band with a new management deal that has done a fine job of promoting the virtues of the band, but all they really need for promotion is for people to hear the new album, “Trial by Fire.”
In case you can’t tell by now I really enjoyed “Trial by Fire.” All tracks spoke to me and brought on the summer feel of having a beer and chatting with friends while the tunes are pumping. With infectious rhythms, strong vocals, and killer solo work Stonecollar has a true winner in “Trial by Fire,” but let’s take a closer look.
We start off with “Not for Good” and its calming acoustical opening. This leads us into some heavy guitar and drum work. Surprisingly when the vocals come into the song the drums stay at the same heavy feeling, letting you know Stone Collar is blending their hard rock with metal. The vocal range soars at times, but not so much that you can’t sing along by chorus number two.
More after the warp:
The title track “Trial by Fire” is a great jamming song and gives you the feeling the boys enjoy what they are doing each and every time they pick up an instrument. We see a strong rhythm once again that goes to an almost Nu-metal aggressiveness.
“SQI” has seen success online and I had actually heard this track before listening to the album. The combination of big voice and big guitars pretty much tell the story of this track. For me personally the song has some alternative feel to it, but the guitar solo around the 2:40 mark steals the show. Awesome song.
“Turn a Blind Eye” displays some amazing bass work that opens into a cool jam spot. The drums and bass are awesome all the way through and created an almost grunge feel to me. We also see some huge percussion work on “Poison the Well.” We hear what sounds like sirens in the background over yet another amazing rhythm. This song made me think how incredible these guys must be live.
“Unnatural Selection” is a very haunting sound that shows Stonecollar can mix it up when they need to. The song features some distortion effects on the vocals and a great hook. The song created a storytelling effect for me that showed the range of the band.
Stonecollar displays a little funk with the hard driving rhythm of “Loose Cannon.” The song moves at a very rapid pace and shows the drums working very hard to keep the song pace moving this quickly. This track is a total band effort with many different intricacies.
The above songs are just some of my favorites of “Trial by Fire.” I encourage you to head over to the above website and purchase this album. If you need a day of drinking, partying, and good music than Stonecollars “Trial by Fire” is the album for you.
Show me your horns,
Martell
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[...] Stonecollar: Trial By Fire In case you can't tell by now I really enjoyed “Trial by Fire ” All tracks spoke to me and brought on the summer feel of having a beer and chatting with friends while the tunes are pumping. With infectious rhythms, strong vocals, [...]
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