Rival Sons
Pressure & Time
Release Date: Jul 26, 2011
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Heavy Metal
Record label: Earache
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Album Review: Pressure & Time by Rival Sons
Fairly Good, Based on 4 Critics
Based on rating 7/10
Earache Records is nominally a label devoted to death metal, but anyone who buys Rival Sons' Pressure & Time expecting an album in that style is likely to be disappointed, just as any rock fan who avoids it with the same expectation will be missing out. The Los Angeles quartet consisting of singer Jay Buchanan, guitarist Scott Holiday, bassist Robin Everhart, and drummer Mike Miley doesn't play death metal, though its music might be called early or pre-metal. Simply put, Rival Sons are a power trio plus singer in the traditional style, who might have made this album after listening to the first Led Zeppelin LP over and over for a day or two.
Based on rating 3/5
It’s fitting that the first cut on these L.A. dudes’ debut full-length lifts the melody of “The Time Warp” from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Although they dress like modern-day Sunset Stripsters, Rival Sons blast back musically to the early ’70s blues-rock of Free and Bad Company. (In slower material like “Only One,” they bask in the light of a more recent lodestar: “She Talks to Angels” by the Black Crowes.) Pressure & Time can bog down in its own retro pretensions, but singer Jay Buchanan is an undeniable vocal force.
Opinion: Excellent
The LA quartet’s second LP, reissued with extras, comes stuffed with rollicking tunes. Greg Moffitt 2012 With high-profile support slots for the likes of AC/DC and Alice Cooper under their belts and iTunes’ Rock Breakthrough Band of the Year 2011 award resting on what may one day become a groaning mantelpiece, LA quartet Rival Sons are big news in the rock world. Plying a brand of soulful hard rock dripping with the blues and swaggering to a good-time groove, they’re arguably the best recent addition to the swelling ranks of 70s revivalist acts.
Opinion: Excellent
I never really paid full attention to Los Angeles band Rival Sons when it first hit the scene back in 2008—a huge mistake that I am proud to have fixed upon hearing Pressure And Time. The blues-rock-inspired quartet uses its inspiring talents to produce an unparalleled energetic sound. Opening track “All Over The Road” is an excellent introduction to the blues/soul blend you are about to get into for the next half hour.
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