Solarized is a group who seem to refuse categorization. On the
\nsurface, they may seem to be the latest in the now-overflowing
\ngenre of stoner rock bands. After all, this is a band whose family
\ntree has at least one branch connected to Monster Magnet.<\/p>\n
Yet Solarized is anything but what you’d expect. Think what
\nwould happen if Rob Zombie fronted The Damned – or even if Glenn
\nDanzig fronted Monster Magnet. That kind of – but not quite
\naccurately – describes what
\nDriven<\/i>, the latest release from this New Jersey-based
\nquartet sounds like. It’s raw and it’s enjoyable – but it does get
\na little predictable around the midway point.<\/p>\n
Guitarist\/vocalist James Hogan has absolutely perfected the rock
\nand roll “sneer vocal,” injecting just the right amount of attitude
\ninto his delivery. Listen to a track like “Dig The Ride,” the first
\nfull-length track (following a 16-second “Intro”) that wakes the
\nlistener up from any possible indifference they may have had. The
\ntwo-guitar attack of Hogan and Dave Toptlenski, backed by the power
\nrhythm section of bassist Mike Fiore and drummer Regina Satana,
\nlets you know that Solarized are by no means what you might have
\nexpected them to be.<\/p>\n
Many of the tracks on
\nDriven<\/i> have an air of heaviness to them, all without
\nremoving themselves from their boogie-rock roots. Tracks like
\n“Chrome Shop,” “Conspiracy” and “Meanspirit” all are ample proof of
\nthis. And the full-throttle cover of The Damned’s “Stab Your Back”
\nshould be more than enough to drive people into the used record
\nstores to (re)discover one of the founding fathers of British punk
\nrock.<\/p>\n
Yet
\nDriven<\/i> follows a simple formula – and at times it feels like
\nthat formula grows a little threadbare. “Box Full Of Dirt” and
\n“Angel” both are tracks which came at a time when the full power of
\nSolarized should have been in effect, yet these tracks, while not
\nbad by any sense of the word, just don’t have the same energy and
\nsnap that others on this disc do. By the mid-point of the disc, I
\nfound it far too easy to drift off into my own world of thoughts –
\nnot a good thing when we’re talking about a CD that clocks in at
\njust under 40 minutes.<\/p>\n
Still, one can’t help but hold out bucketfuls of hope for
\nSolarized. After all, the momentum swings back in their favor by
\nthe time the last track, “World Without End,” kicks in, and
\nDriven<\/i> overall is a nice way to spend part of an afternoon.
\nIf they tighten up their songwriting and delivery just a little
\nmore, Solarized could well be on the verge of becoming a serious
\nforce to deal with in the commercial market – and that’s something
\nI’m looking forward to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6700],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-37313","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-solarized","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37313"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37313"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}