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Grifter: The Return of the Bearded Brethren

Heavy Rock/Metal

3.5/5.0

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Ripple Music
Words: Craig Hartranft    Added: 31.07.2014

Three years removed from their debut album, England's Grifter is still carving a path through the heavy rock fields with The Return of the Bearded Brethren. The hairy bear-like man on the cover of the album more than a little symbolizes Grifter's beefy big riff, big groove sound.

Grifter: brethren bearded.

The band lays down riffs in chunks like the rhythmic chopping of heavy lumber; the bass and drums deliver the groove somewhere between heavy and steady and surly swaggering like a bear lumbering along to chase you up a tree. Did you know a grizzly bear can reach top speeds of 30mph? Black Gold, Braggards Boast, and It's Not Me It's You got the groove moves of that gentle giant barrelling through the fields.

Other time Grifter simply rumble along laying down riffs and bass lines with precision, yet not with out groove and some frisky flying nearly psychedelic guitar line as with Fire Water or Princess Leia. But that latter song is not without some speed notably in refrain. Another keen angle of the band is adding hints of blues or southern rock. Bow Down to the Monkey, with it's Seventies cow bell start, definitely has a bit of the former infused within. Paranoiac Blues finds Ollie Stygall giving his fret board the bottle neck slide guitar treatment and the song having churning, stir the stew, backwater feel. Finally, kudos to the band for covering Fairies Wear Boots by one of their obvious influences, Black Sabbath. I've always liked that song, especially because I thought the image of fairies wearing boots rather humorous and Sabbath singing about it even funnier. Grifter's homage is spot on, only heavier, thicker in the rhythm section. In the end, with The Return of the Bearded Brethren, Grifter mostly stays the course, continuing to work out their heavy rock solid results. Recommended.

Grifter - Princess Leia

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With The Return of the Bearded Brethren, Grifter mostly stays the course, continuing to work out their heavy rock positive and entertaining results. Recommended.

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The Powell Payne project, created in 2022 is the collaboration of Mark "Penfold Powell (ex-drummer of Psycho Kiss) and Adam Payne (former vocalist of Airrace). With guitarist Adam Davies and keyboard player ... [ Read More ]