Smoking Martha is an exciting new Rock
band from Australia.
Upon listening to their debut album,
In Deep, I was reminded of a few contemporary bands ranging from In This Moment to
Halestorm, but don't compare them to those bands
because they have many elements that
push them ahead of the pack.
The band started in 2012 and is made up
of singer Tasha D, guitarist Mick Broome, and guitarist Az Stonely,
and Matty Mulhearan on bass and Jordy Poynter on drums respectively.
Their press release states they are influenced by everyone from Rise
Against to Queens of the Stone Age, and also states they honed their sound opening up for everyone from
Uriah Heep to Seether to Cherie Curie from the Runaways, so a
diverse palette was to be expected.
The album starts with a bang with the
song “So Lonely” and the song features a few progressive
riffs in an odd timing that create a slightly jarring impact that's very heavy and appealing.
It has a few cool wah guitar solos and also has a part on vocals that don't sound too far removed from
a certain Gwen Stefani.
The song “Say You're Mine” is even
more metallic, and has a more energetic feel.
It's songs like this that really
appealed to me, because at their core Smoking Martha seems to have a
love for old school traditional rock and
hard rock, and this is refreshing in a musical environment today
that often times values novelty over
substance, at least in the rock and metal scenes.
Instead of
impressing us with a bunch of out of place electronica influences,
djent breakdowns, or whatever else, we have the emphasis on soulful
rock, even if the production is somewhat grounded firmly in the
modern age. That's not to say that this contradicts the previous
claim of eclecticism, quite the contrary. But the eclecticism that is
evident on such songs as Ebb of the Tide (an almost full on jazz
part) comes off as having a natural feel and isn't being shoehorned
in, which is unlike a lot of many modern bands in general. The
closest the album gets to anything mechanized are some distorted vocal effects, which hearkens back to the Sixties anyway!
The album breaks the
pace with the ballad, “Baby Let Me Go” but that is only in
preparation with my favorite song on the album, “Follow”. The
song features the lounge-like, smokey vocals of Tasha over a slow bluesy
backdrop that really stands out. It's songs like this and the next
one, Find A Way, that I feel are the highlights of the album and
where the band is also wearing their more classic rock influences on
their sleeves.
“What's Her Name” follows and is
similar to the earlier songs on the album, and then we have another
highlight, “Stranger Things”.
As song # 10, it is again back to
the anthem like quality of the first songs on the album, and with it's
lyrical exhalations like “We Fight!” you know you have a crowd
singalong in the making.
Overall, it's cool to hear a band
willing to both embrace the past and also stay rooted in the present
enough to not sound retro, while pointing at the future. It'll be
cool to see where Smoking Martha goes as they further develop and
gain prominence.
If you're interested in checking out
Smoking Martha, here are some relevant links:
Comments
Post a Comment