{"id":1212,"date":"2017-09-05T12:12:23","date_gmt":"2017-09-05T12:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-lionize-nuclear-soul\/"},"modified":"2018-03-22T23:29:53","modified_gmt":"2018-03-22T23:29:53","slug":"review-lionize-nuclear-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-lionize-nuclear-soul\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Lionize &#8211; Nuclear Soul"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"tmblr-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/78.media.tumblr.com\/92ec722dac57b54ca202cb5a2b4c086a\/tumblr_ovp81oXEXl1r8no6so5_1280.jpg\" width=\"250em\" alt=\"\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n<p>The company that <b>Lionize<\/b> find themselves among couldn&rsquo;t be more diverse if it tried. After all, this is a band who, on the one hand, have taken support slots with Clutch and Bad Brains, but also The Wailers and Steel Pulse. It&rsquo;s a diverse mix, sure, but then again <b>Lionize<\/b> are a diverse band.<\/p>\n<p><i>&lsquo;Nuclear Soul&rsquo;<\/i> wastes no time in showing that either. Within the first three tracks they&rsquo;re already playing around with elongated stabs of organ, wailing, funked-up bass licks and pensive acoustic passages. On paper, it makes little sense, but in practice&hellip;it also makes little sense. But there is at least some kind of method to their madness. The initial groundwork at least remains solid, with foundations in driving, old-school blues-rock with their various eccentricities laid over it. This keeps <i>&#8216;Power Grid Blues&rsquo;<\/i> and <i>&#8216;March Of The Clones&rsquo;<\/i> from fully flying off the handle.<\/p>\n<p><!-- more --><\/p>\n<p>That said, there&rsquo;s a distinct feeling that <b>Lionize<\/b> find themselves a lot more impressive than they actually are. Sure, Nate Bergman&rsquo;s soulful howl is as taut and powerful as it needs to be, but beyond this, <i>&#8216;Nuclear Soul&rsquo;<\/i> can at times feel extremely self-indulgent. The blues riffing starts to feel stale after a while, be that with tracks that don&rsquo;t have the firepower they clearly need like the title track, or when the band strip themselves down to very basic ideals on <i>&#8216;Let You Down&rsquo;<\/i>. Some decent bass grooves peppered around can make up for quite a lot, but <i>&#8216;Nuclear Soul&rsquo;<\/i> really begins to lose its luster after a while.<\/p>\n<p>In a way though, that&rsquo;s to be expected. <b>Lionize<\/b> are shooting far beyond the parameters of a &ldquo;classic rock&rdquo; band, and in doing so, there&rsquo;s bound to be some pitfalls along the way that they unfortunately fall victim to. Overall <i>&#8216;Nuclear Soul&rsquo;<\/i> does do a lot impressively, even with its numerous inconsistencies, and the fact that it is so unlike anything else remains its most emphatic saving grace.<\/p>\n<p>3\/5<\/p>\n<p><i>&#8216;Nuclear Soul&rsquo;<\/i> by <b>Lionize<\/b> is out released on 8th September on <b>The End Records<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Lionize<\/b> links: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lionizemusic.com\/splash\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Website<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/LIONIZEMUSIC\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/ttwitter.com\/LionizeMusic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words by Luke Nuttall (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nuttall_luke\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@nuttall_luke<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The company that Lionize find themselves among couldn&rsquo;t be more diverse if it tried. After all, this is a band who, on the one hand, have taken support slots with Clutch and Bad Brains, but also The Wailers and Steel Pulse. It&rsquo;s a diverse mix, sure, but then again Lionize are a diverse band. &lsquo;Nuclear [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":16602,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[1061,15029,1095,1096],"class_list":["post-1212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-lionize","tag-luke-nuttall","tag-nuclear-soul","tag-the-end-records"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Review: Lionize - Nuclear Soul - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The company that Lionize find themselves among couldn&rsquo;t be more diverse if it tried. After all, this is a band who, on the one hand, have taken\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review: Lionize - Nuclear Soul - Already Heard Staging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The company that Lionize find themselves among couldn&rsquo;t be more diverse if it tried. After all, this is a band who, on the one hand, have taken\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-lionize-nuclear-soul\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Already Heard Staging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-05T12:12:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-03-22T23:29:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_ovp81oXEXl1r8no6so5_1280.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Luke Nuttall\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@alreadyhearduk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@alreadyhearduk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Luke Nuttall\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Review: Lionize - Nuclear Soul - Already Heard Staging","description":"The company that Lionize find themselves among couldn&rsquo;t be more diverse if it tried. 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