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Review – Rival Sons – Before The Fire

I’d like to thank The Soda Shop follower Jim P. For turning me onto this next band. Without him I doubt I would have run across Rival Sons. Rival Sons is a four piece band hailing from southern California. They play an awesome brand of late 70’s classic/hard rock. Think early Aerosmith. Vocalist Jay Buchanan even sounds a bit like Steven Tyler. While the comparisons are there, this band is not an Aerosmith tribute band.

The opening track “Tell Me Something” reminds me a bit of “Walk The Line.” More so in the way the song is structured and not so much as the way the song sounds. “Memphis Sun” is a big blues rock sounding song that gets pretty epic as it continues. It’s easily my favorite track on the album. The fourth track, “Angel” is just as great and epic. “Pocket of Stones” will rock your ears out til it bleeds. With track 6, “The Man Who Wasn’t There” the band band brings it down a few notches. The song is a much slower in both tone and tempo. “On My Way” is another bluesy track with that mixes the speed and is an epic song that wouldn’t surprise me if it wounded up on a movie soundtrack. The album ends with “Nanda-Nandana” which is a faster and upbeat tune and incorporates some different styles and sounds.

This album really took me by surprise. I’ve listened to it at least 10 times in the last 3 days. I’m currently listening to it as I write up this review. The album is for just about everyone. Whether you like old school 70’s, classic rock, hard rock and/or southern rock or bands like Aerosmith, Night Horse, Dirty Sweet or even Graveyard , you’ll like this. The album was released last year directly through the band. Check out what they have to offer on their sites.Leave your comments below, let us know what you think.