Small Town Titans – The Ride
Release Date: 13th November 2020
Label: AntiFragile Music
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Genre: Hard Rock, Southern Hard Rock.
FFO: Alter Bridge, Black Stone Cherry, Shinedown.
Review By: Paul Franklin
Subtlety, forget it! Rustlin’ Feathers, roars into life with a ten second scream from frontman/bassist Phil Freeman, followed by the rather redundant “Can you hear me out there?”. A tongue-in-cheek call to turn the speakers up and drown out all the noise on social media, the track introduces the Small Town Titans (STT), in rather the same way as driving a monster truck through Legoland.
The American power rock trio (completed by guitarist Ben Guiles and drummer Jonny Ross) keep their foot to the floor onto the next track The Man, which, with it’s screams of “I am the Man” and the warning that “You better tighten up your laces, And get ready for a losing game, ‘Cause you have no idea what’s coming” is just waiting for a fighter to claim it as their personal walk-on music.
It needs to mentioned that by this time in the listening process you can’t have failed to notice that aforementioned Freeman has one hell of a voice. As you progress through the album there are full throated screams (on the stampeding When It All Comes Down) and gentle three part harmonies (Behind The Moon). There are the Chris Cornell tones of the grungey Let Me Breathe, and coming over all Serj Tankian on the bouncy Universal Limits, his voice is remarkable. (Check out their cover of Spoonman and Hunger Strike on YouTube!)
Actually on the subject of YouTube, SST don’t seem to be following the ‘traditional’ industry rules. With no manager, label or radio support (or interference?) they say that they enjoy the freedom to create the music they want to make, when they want to make it. And as such, can create and release songs, podcasts, live online concerts, and more. There is certainly a huge amount of content, including the cover of You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch that went viral in 2018. I would recommend checking out if you like what you read/hear here.
Back to the album.
Rather than the hoped for cover of the Dolly Parton classic, 9 to 5 is a slower Southern rock/country-tinged paean to working hard to support your family, and the desire to “..drink, Just to get drunk” and “..smoke, Just to get high”. In stark contrast Sex and Candy, a depravedly wicked cover of the Marcy Playground song, sounds like someone in the pungent depths of an adult cinema, scraping the floor clean after a back-to-back double-feature.
The Ride concludes with Junkie For You (Hey Mama), a bluesy rocker that champions the virtues of natural beauty over fake embellishments. And the title track itself, 8 minutes of an ‘all-or-bust’ approach that takes that semi-acoustic 90’s grunge sound from earlier, layers over some cool, breezy style vocals, before pausing for a mid-song freestyle wig out, and building to a soaring finish.
(3.5 / 5)
