Artist: Denizen
Album: High Winds Preacher
Genre: Stoner Rock, Hard Rock
Country: France
Release date: 29th of November, 2019
Released via Argonauta Records
Cover artwork © Argonauta Records, 2019
This one is about Denizen, a Stoner Rock quartet from Montpellier, South France. High Winds Preacher is their fourth full-length album. The last release was Troubled Waters from 2015. There are other bands going by the same name, one Rock band from New York and an Electronic project. All of them are mixed-up completely on all the different streaming services… So, Denizen from France!!!
High Winds Preacher comes along with 10 tracks, between 2:26 (“Punch Out”) and 6:43 (“Tomahawk”) minutes length, and a total playtime of roughly 46 minutes. The album starts with a really powerful, forward-driving song that somehow reminds me more of my favorite Australians from The Neptune Power Federation, and less of the typical Stoner Rock band. The funky riffs, the power, and even the outstanding and special-sounding voice of singer Fabien Aletto gave me this feeling. Not that bad, isn’t it?
The second track “Among the Trees” reminds me more of regular Stoner, especially with its hard, deep and fuzzy guitar tone. I like this one – and again these vocals! I really like them, because they uplift the songs to something special. Aletto‘s voice has this little special extra you need, to sound special. Starting off in a high range, some kind of angel-esque, a little transfer to the vocal range known from the track before. In “Ears Wide Open” and especially the aggressive-sounding “Chase The Guru” we get to know another part of the vocal range with a nice rumbling.
I also like the production of the album. Nice drum sound, good guitar sound, as mentioned before, and even the bass can be located all the time. I found lot of nice riffs and licks, drumrolls, and parts that remind me of untypical bands. For example “Deaf Taints” feels a lot like Rage Against The Machine because of the arrangment. And you know what… THERE IS EVEN A COWBELL IN IT!!!!
To be honest, at first I was slightly sceptical with this album, but the more I listened to it, the more I liked it, the more I can find stuff that makes it special to me. Damn, it’s an awesome record!!!
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
9/10
As usual, we added the favorite track(s) to our Transcended Review Playlist 2020.
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