Rawk roundup – Symphony Of Pain vs. Withem vs. Suns Of Stone

Rawk roundup – Symphony Of Pain vs. Withem vs. Suns Of Stone

SYMPHONY OF PAIN
Hydeology
Lycan Media / through Plastic Head Distribution

Well this was a bit of a surprise. I didn’t expect much from a collaboration between an ex-member of Beki Bondages band and Julian Lloyd Webbers pianist, but blow me down if they haven’t come up with a wee goth rock gem.

Tracie Law (Beki Bondage band) and Pam Chowhan (Julian Lloyd Webber) are the duo responsible, with some guest guitar from Krybgrinder’s Dave Dart, more guitar from Nick Taylor and some backing vocals from Liz Sweetland. It’s an interesting press release which throws about influences like Led Zeppelin, Thin Lizzy and Ozzy, none of which make any sense, unlike the Nine Inch Nails and Rammstein mentions, which make a lot of sense. But it’s musically very engaing, and that’s all that matters.

There’s lots of fiddling, lots of swooshes, plenty of darkwave, and some well written tunes like ‘Nightmare Life’ and ‘Broken Clown’, all well produced and full sounding. Well worth a listen if goth is your thing.

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WITHEM
The Point Of You
Sensory

Aiiiiiieee!!! Oh, hang on. Withem may be from Norway but rather than do the decent thing and burn a few churches and / or kill fellow musicians, they’ve decided to form a prog metal band, and release an album. Seems like the easy way out, but that’s youngsters today.

And it is indeed guitar driven prog metal, with the odd nod to eighties power metal. So it’s “Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence” meets “Hall of the Mountain King”. Which is a good thing. Granted, they’re not quite there yet, but they really are good. Top notch vocals, widdly instrumentation and plenty of riffs. For sure, there is a bit too much falsetto for my delicate ears, but as long as they can put a song together as good as ‘Miracle’ or ‘Burned By Senses’, then I’ll be happy.

They may not have defined their own identity yet, but they’re definitely worth cocking an ear at.

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SUNS OF STONE
Suns Of Stone
Self released

Finally, we’re heading off to Canadia for some seventies influenced rawk from Suns Of Stone. There are lots of Zeppelin styled riffs, a few Southern rock influences, with a soupcon of modern rock. So, yes, you’re right. They’re Rival Sons.

But there’s room for more than one of them, and Suns Of Stone have more than enough good tunes to make themselves heard above the clatter. In Alan Charlton they’ve got themselves an excellent singer, and the rest of the band know how to make a righteous noise on some good tunes, with ‘Hold On Me’ and ‘Stormbringer’ the ones that hit me over the head hardest.

Again, they’re not reinventing the wheel here, but if you’re looking for a good time, you’ll find one here.

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