I am one of those (few?) people who appreciated Carcass's rock turn. Granted: their best album remains "Necroticism" but after the beautiful "Heartwork" which proposed (in an intelligent and original way) a similar genre, in 1994 "Swansong" arrives and many were caught off guard. Times change, the structure of the songs changes, it's an unhealthy, dark hard-rock, but light years away from the quartet's previous albums. And the sound of the guitars changes strikingly;
One of Carcass's two guitarists is Bill Steer (also former Napalm Death), who in 1999 founded Firebird; "Hot Wings" is their third album and was released in 2006, with the line-up including Al Steer (bass) and Ludwig Witt (drums).
And it's impressive to hear Bill singing cleanly (the same person from the growls in "Reek Of Putrefaction") and playing a '70s rock that surely leans more towards blues than the stoner proposed by former bandmate Amott with the Spiritual Beggars.
The sound is dirty but not harsh or scratchy, it is a dusty mix of sweat and a few chords embellished here and there by riffs reminiscent of early Cream, the drumming is varied without overdoing it while the bass is the least ear-catching but lays well on the notes proposed by the British trio.
The 11 tracks that make up "Hot Wings" I'd almost place all on the same level, except perhaps for the first "Carousel", one of the faster ones, the beautiful "Misty Morning" where our Bill even fits some nice pieces with the harmonica, an instrument which still appears in more than one song and further enhances the "bluesy" sound of the trio. The poignant "Bow Bells" also stands out, almost a classic-rock ballad.
There is no room for the rarefied and claustrophobic atmospheres of "Swansong", perhaps Firebird is meant to understand rock in a completely different way and to deliver us an album that in 2006 sounds so anachronistic as to be almost alternative; a genuine record, at times perhaps sparse, where there is no hint of the guitar technicalities of "Necroticism", where there is no "hit" that stands out above the others and where there is nothing innovative but the desire to play in the present with the heart in the past... what can I say... IT'S ONLY ROCK' N' ROLL... BUT I LIKE IT.
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