The Parlor Mob
And You Were A Crow

Open your eyes wide and watch where you step.

This recommendation is a must when listening to ..."And You Were A Crow", a striking debut by 5 American guys from New Jersey ready to overwhelm you and leave scorched earth behind their passage.
I imagine them aboard one of those old caravans surviving unknown misadventures, still ready to cover miles from one place to another, taking them from town to town.
It's the same old story: keep up with the times or follow the path traced 4 decades ago by the pioneers of the genre?
Here you can find the right compromise, plots that honor the '70s but are revisited in a modern way, all the feeling of the golden years combined with a fresh production that doesn't feel like a revival. 

The Parlor Mob know their stuff and have great talent, managing to get you involved right away with their energy: "Hard Times," "Dead Wrong," "Everything You Are Breathing For," "The Kids". Making it clear that their riffs are not just simple open chords amplified and elongated, but rather skillful weaves very dear to Jimmy Page but also to the Allman brothers.
These songs run smoothly, and that's the beauty of it, everything is authentic and not just a simple surprise!
Explosive riffs "Bullet", "Real Hard Headed" ignited by the captivating and powerful voice of one Mark Melicia. Sometimes distressed, other times more seductive, but always direct and in the foreground. What to say about "Tide Of Tears" (already a classic for me) my favorite of the batch if only for the microphone performance and the final solo. "Carnival Of Crows" does nothing but reiterate what I've already said about the groove this band knows how to deliver.

Acoustic openings are also present. And it's here that, in my opinion, they should insist to be unique; the opener of "When I Was An Orphan," "Angry Young Girl" and the surprising "Can't Keep..." which seems to be an outtake from Led Zeppelin III.
They didn't miss a thing in this debut, including piano and moog which glue a good part of the tracks without being cumbersome (the sound canvas is made of guitars that go hand in hand or chase each other breathlessly).
There are already those who will say: <>, well, I would see it more as a boast than a fault, considering the result. If the future is in the hands of people like them, we can rest easy, they have all the credentials to earn their ranks on the field show after show.

In contrast to Wolfmother they have many, many more arrows in their quiver (read technical skills), more varied in their offering and more "classic" than The Answer.
So, it's not a gamble to bet a nice stack of chips on them and who knows, maybe time and especially the second album will break the bank.
The choice is yours whether to stay in the game or fold, but especially how to get out of this situation...
...In the background, an old barn in flames, a recently abandoned destroyed fence, devastated haystacks, traces of an old caravan mark the only path down to the river. Behind you, a charred vegetation, a burnt smell, and a runaway herd speeding straight ahead... The New Jersey gang has just passed through here.
Amazing! They would say on the other side of the ocean, I say: "Open your eyes wide, get to safety, run if you can... But watch where you step..."

The opinion of Commendator Bossolazzi:
<<Discover them before others do! 5 medlars 5>>.