Valient Thorr - Immortalizer

  by Andrew Carver

published: 6 / 7 / 2008

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Review

The band Valient Thorr comes shredding out of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with a backstory and pseudonyms out of UFO lore and a sound that’s bred in southern rock and metal. Singer and namesake Valient Himself is not a great singer, but his dried out shout serves the exhortations in tunes like lead track ‘I Hope The Guests of the Dead Haunt Your Soul Forever’ and the band behind him whip up some squealing guitar and thundering rhythm in the vein of fellow Carolinians the Cherry Valence. On tunes like ‘Tomorrow Cops’ they take some cues from AC/DC, with Himself mustering a Bon Scott style leer for his prophecy of police brutality. Elsewhere the band settles into a Motorhead-style chug. The band shows its range on ‘Vernal Equinox’, an acoustic guitar instrumental that neatly splits the album. Despite the band’s outlandish mythology, most of their songs come across as straight-faced. There’s the self-examination of ‘Mask of Sanity’; the unironic, hardhitting ode to wrestling ‘No Holds Barred’ and the ‘Parable of Daedalus’ scrutinizes the legend of Icarus’ fatal flight. Politics also permeate the album: ‘1,000 Winters in a Row’ asks the listener if they believe the lies on TV or whether one person can make a difference, ‘Red Flag’ assails the powerful (or the comfortable, or something). ‘Immortalizer’ is a robust blend of punk, metal and southern rock that should satisfy fans of the aforementioned Cherry Valence as well as bands like Five Horse Johnson, Roadsaw and Throttlerod.

Track Listing:-

1 I Hope The Ghosts Of The Dead Haunt Yr Soul Forever
2 Infinite Lives
3 Mask Of Sanity
4 Tomorrow Police
5 No Holds Barred
6 Parable Of Daedalus
7 Birdhead Looking At Goldenhands
8 Vernal Equinox
9 1000 Winters In A Row
10 Red Flag
11 Nomadic Sacrifice
12 Steeplechase
13 Tackle The Walrus
14 Track 14