Laden heavy with big chunky riffs and with the axle kept from the ground with some liquored, smoky vocals ‘A Rebel Few’ have a great starting point. The fact that they have the songs and the heavy groove to back it all up makes you instantly take notice.
The album itself and lead track ‘Born Again’ has elements of Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and maybe a hint of Pantera and Black Stone Cherry. Striking also is that the band has produced a really strong sounding album, up there with the best we’ve heard this year.
Of course like all the best music there’s nothing new here, but what there is, is pretty damned impressive. After the groove of the opener the paces lifts for the stomping ‘Rebel Few’ it’s a great driving track that works well against the big rolling groove of ‘Empires Fall’. It’s a great trifecta to open the album. Best though perhaps comes next with the crushing southern-edged metal-infused mad blues of ‘Dyin’ Breed’… If ZZ Top were Pantera?
Things get decidedly heavier with ‘Said N Done’ which adds an almost Thrashy sensibility to the mix, but that darkness is nicely juxtaposed against the album’s longest track, the real meat of the matter ‘Serious’ which really shows the power the band has at hand.
The last few tracks lay out a few more influences with the distinctly southern flavour of ‘Who Knows’, which bristles nicely before the kick and grunt of ‘Bitter Man’ replete with great double guitar solo. The album ends, you feel, a little too soon at only nine tracks with ‘Pure Revolution’ which leaves us on a rather heartfelt note and a real nice slab of classic rock. It’s a great track and another that underlines the quality here.
What marks Rebel Few out from the rest of the pack is their ability to take on-board their influences and let it all out again with style and precision. There’s something about the band that just gets to the point, no frills no fancy packaging just great honest working man’s rock that cuts to the chase. There may be a million bands out there ploughing this field but few do it this well.
