Holy Grove - Holy Grove

  by Adrian Huggins

published: 27 / 4 / 2016

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This is the debut album from Portland, Oregon band Holy Grove. The band are no doubt going to turn heads, raise pulses and lower dancing speeds across the rock world in 2016 with their brand of heavy doom that lends itself as much to 70’s classic rock as it does to the current crop of Southern US sludge metal bands. Holy Grove is fronted by Andrea Vidal, and their use of a female vocalist gives the band a more refined and piercing sound rather than relying merely on riffs and barked vocals as many of their contemporaries do. There are obvious comparisons like the fellow-female-fronted Jucifer and, of course, Black Sabbath, but, however, you could attribute most bands of this style to some sort of Sabbath sound and that is never, ever a bad thing. I also get a bit of a Goatsnake vibe from Holy Grove. The band’s sound is well produced and as close to clean as heavy music can be without veering into ‘over-produced’ which is no doubt down to producer Billy Anderson who has previously worked with titans such as Sleep and Melvins. Straight from the opening riff of ‘Death Of Magic’ you are drawn into Holy Gove's psych-tinged, stoner, doom sound, which is led by Trent Jacob's guitar and Gregg Emley's bass and the pace is carried throughout. I did at times find myself wishing for a bit of a changing in tempo, but, however, this wish was recognised in the mighty ‘Hanged Man’ which starts out sounding like Black Sabbath but ends up being more ‘Stairway To Heaven,’ which is not a bad combination of bands/songs. ‘Nix’ would be my first recommendation of tunes to check out from Holy Grove but, however, you would probably not be disappointed at any of the tracks on this album if the stoner vibe is your thing.

Track Listing:-

1 Death of Magic
2 Nix
3 Holy Grove
4 Huntress
5 Caravan
6 Hanged Man
7 Safe Return

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/holygroveband
http://holygrove.bandcamp.com/

Label Links:-

http://www.heavypsychsounds.com/
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS
https://twitter.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUND
https://www.youtube.com/user/MonoStereo79
https://instagram.com/heavypsychsounds_records/

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