Hogjaw
Ironwood

The Ironwood is an extraordinary plant that thrives in the desert area of Arizona under extreme environmental and climatic conditions, an imposing plant capable of living up to 1500 years. It is therefore a symbol of tenacity and unparalleled power, the same power and tenacity that can be found in the brand new album by Hogjaw, aptly titled Ironwood, a band hailing from the Phoenix (Arizona) area that I previously discussed upon their debut in 2008.

With their debut album Devil in the Details, they had already made it clear what they're made of, but with this new CD they have forcibly entered the Olympus of the renewed and boiling Southern Rock movement.
Right from the first listen, the band's stylistic energy and power immediately strike, with the incisive and powerful guitars of Craig Self and Joanboat Jones and the melancholic and raspy voice of Jones himself, combined with the relentless rhythm of Kwall on drums and Elvis DD on bass, with whom I had a pleasant exchange of emails and learned that he has Italian origins and is a Gulf War veteran.

"Rollin' Thunder" opens the show, and you can't help but turn up the volume. Its energy is a perfect and overwhelming appetizer to the subsequent "Backtop" and "Three Fifty Seven", which prove to be absolutely scorching with breathtaking riffs and overwhelming solos.
We find a small break around the fifth track, "Country Line" with typically old southern melodies that recall Skynyrd sounds, then resume the initial power until the concluding "Hornsnowgglin" which brings us down to earth, throwing us back into the deep south made of slide guitar and whiskey-burnt vocals.

A CD that is an authentic adrenaline rush with truly inspired pieces, overwhelming riffs and fiery solos, while at the same time taking us far into the deep and dusty southwest, rediscovering the old melodies of 70s Southern Rock enriched by a powerful and gritty sound that I like to define as Heavy Southern Rock.
A CD not to be missed in your Southern discotheque, but also for lovers of good music and the more monolithic and powerful rock, in my opinion, one of the best Southern Rock albums of the first half of 2010.