‘Blood Moon’ is an album of riff-heavy narratives inspired by David Angstrom’s (ex Hermano & Superfuzz) move to the Colorado mountains and perfectly reflects that “We don’t like strangers round ‘ere” vibe of sinister small-town mountain communities. As such, there’s a doomy heaviness to Luna Sol that lies like a heavy fug; as if a room full of long haired rockers just smoked a bowl with their buddies from other bands. Which, I imagine, is precisely what they did. ‘Bridges’ kicks off in upbeat groove with a good old fashioned driving rocker; David’s grungy voice working the hook around some unexpected time changes and smoking hot guitar solos; great start. The album soon settles into a kind of down-tempo riff-heavy vibe with a slight air of Alice in Chains, though this is no bad thing, especially on slow-burning tracks like ‘December’ with its dirty-sounding hard packed riffs.
The middle section of the album showcases the band perfectly; the quirky ‘Leadville’ with its banjo solo is a coolly done ode to the town, ‘Pretty Rotten’ is more upbeat, guest bass from Nick Oliveri (QotSA) driving the song in badass fashion, while killer track ‘Operator’ is so dense, it’s like they’ve got moss on the E string.
The guitar playing on this record is exceptionally good throughout, with well-placed wailing solos on pretty much every track, even on ‘Standley Lake’, which is less riffy, but kicks along to a twanging bass line and some great vocals. But it is on ‘Your War’ that things reach a resounding climax with the soaring vocals and grinding guitars giving an epic feel to the track. Throw in the sublime solo and the spookiest Hammond Organ outro from another guest contributor, Dizzy Reed, and we have a killer tune on our hands.
‘In the Shadows’ brings this strong album of stoner rock to a quirky wife-killing close, rounding off these atmospheric tales of life in the mountains in suitably sinister fashion. What lingers in the memory, though, is the fired-up fretwork and plenty of head-rocking badass tunes; excellent stuff!
4.5/5
‘Blood Moon’ by Luna Sol is released on September 11th on Cargo Records.
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Words by Edward Layland (@EdwardLayland)
