Rival Sons – Feral Roots
Release Date: January 25, 2019
I know this a late review but better late than never! After the last couple of Rival Sons albums, I felt a little bit lost. They seemed to lack cohesion and didn’t seem to move me anywhere near what their debut and their Pressure and Time album did. While I didn’t love the last couple of albums, I wasn’t ready to write Rival Sons off. With the release of 2019’s Feral Roots, it made me so glad that I stuck it out.
Kicking off with “Do Your Worst,” I felt like this was signature Rival Sons. It was gritty, sleazy, and just downright rocking. “Back in the Woods” took me back to the Pressure and Time album, but then things started to change but for the better. “Look Away” exercised some cool dynamics, but it is the title track that is, without a doubt, the showstopper.
“Feral Roots” showed the band’s ability to be dynamic and to compose a well thought out and executed epic song. Most epics tend to top the 8-minute mark, but the vocal delivery of Jay Buchanan and the Led Zeppelin-esque musical changes accomplishes more in six minutes than most epics twice that length. This is a song that got quite a few replays, and it’s a song that took me someplace special. When a song can do that for me, I consider that more than a song. I consider that an ethereal experience.
Feral Roots is a musical sonic voyage that swept me away. Feral Roots is hands down Rival Sons’ best album to date. It’s focused, well executed, and well planned without losing the soul and spontinaity that Rival Sons has become known for. Feral Roots has Rival Sons establishing themselves as their own entity and proves that they can stand tall on their own beside the biggest of rock and roll giants.
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