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Grande Fox — Empty Nest
(Bandcamp no#, 2021, CD / DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2022-03-21

Empty Nest Cover art

Back in 2016, Grande Fox took us to their Space Nest, and in 2021 we learned that it was an Empty Nest. This is a heavy trip down the lane of heavy 70s rock full of heavy riffs. Their biggest inspiration is classic Black Sabbath, but that’s not the only tool in their kit. They sometimes touch on the kind of trippy quieter sections that Sabbath used to do, and you’ll hear occasional nods to more modern sounds, like Nirvana-type soft-loud contrasts and Rage Against the Machine metal-rap. But those are only seasonings on the core flavor, which is great riffs and strong singing. They’re keeping the flame of rock alive while mixing it up enough to avoid getting tedious. A song like “Brutal Colors” provides a dose of this contrast, with weird droning echoes and a slow beat with a great bass tone. Guitar tones drift into deep space, and when the guitar joins in the rhythm, it has a cool left-right delay that sounds cool in headphones. The chorus gives us a moment of Ozzy screaming, and then there’s a section with a whole bunch of added vocal parts, some whispering, some harmonizing — it’s a really nice touch. This is how you do the slow metal grind right. Elsewhere the pace picks up for some really solid high-energy rock, and the flow of the album is excellent. Grande Fox’s Nest may be Empty, but their bag of tricks is overflowing.

Filed under: New releases, 2021 releases

Related artist(s): Grande Fox

More info
http://grandefox.bandcamp.com/album/empty-nest

 

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