JAKETHEHAWK – Hinterlands
Release Date: 19th February 2021
Label: Ripple Music
Bandcamp
Genre: Appalachian Desert Rock, Stoner Rock.
FFO: Porcupine Tree, Kyuss, Fu Manchu.
Review By: Paul Cairney
Hinterlands is a 6 track album by Pittsburgh band JakeTheHawk and truth be known, I don’t know how this should be typed. The Bio received shouts at us JAKETHEHAWK, streaming sites only use a singular capital Jakethehawk, with Facebook also utilising the singular capital. This is unimportant. The simple matter of fact is that it is the album, HINTERLANDS, that should shout at us, as it is simply a superior Stoner Rock album.
Each of the 6 tracks is a captivating example of, what we are supposed to believe is Appalachian Desert Rock. Now, anyone who has read Bill Bryson will know that the Appalachian’s are a mountain range in the USA. Again, this is not important. HINTERLANDS deserves to be mountainous as it is a truly huge album. If Everest tickled the Pennsylvania region, it would be Everest Desert Rock.
Opening track ‘Counting’, sets the tone for the album, with a psychedelic stoner riff, delving into a touch of Shoegaze, that sparks your interest and the hope that you may have a good listen. ‘Ochre and Timber’ continues the interest but it is the 4th track where JAKETHEHAWK stretch their legs. Still Life is the song that dominates the album. With the progressive Opeth leanings, it also features a fuzzy, disgustingly magnificent riff that belies the earlier songs. It is the highlight of a very strong album
‘Uncanny Valley, is perhaps the only track that can lay claim to being tenuously Desert Rock, with a particularly pleasant Kyuss intro. That said, the Desert Rock influence, rather aptly, evaporates into more progressive leanings before firing into an epic finale that leaves you begging for more.
Alas, as previously mentioned, HINTERLANDS is only 6 songs long. So by the time June envelopes you in its glory, you are left with an unfeasibly brief initial flicker of disappointment before you realise how good a song it is. Then you hit the final 2 and ½ minutes and you lose your shit. It is a song that befits any Appalachian, Everest or even Palm Desert Rock descriptions.
HINTERLANDS is nothing short of exceptional.
(5 / 5)
