Okay, follow me closely here. Rival Sons released two albums in a span of five months in 2023. The first was called Darkfighter <\/i>and had a supposedly different mood among its eight songs than the follow-up, Lightbringer<\/i>, which only has six songs, one of which is called \u201cDarkfighter.\u201d Got all that?<\/p>\n
After hearing Lightbringer, <\/i>one wonders why the band didn\u2019t just release one epic 74-minute album, as it surely would have been their best one yet. The six songs on the new release aren\u2019t all that different; despite all the pre-album talk about the different vibes, it\u2019s hard to notice much of a difference, though I guess one could say this new album is a little less intense. I almost wondered if putting \u201cDarkfighter\u201d on the follow-up album was a nod to Led Zeppelin doing the same with \u201cHouses Of The Holy\u201d and for really no other reason.<\/p>\n
Speaking of Zep: The six songs here were recorded at the same time as Darkfighter<\/i>, so they are all of a piece, showcasing the band\u2019s ambition and growth in ways only hinted at previously. There are and will always be traces of Zep, the Black Keys and bits of Soundgarden and Sabbath in in their sound, but these two albums together show how the Sons have coalesced those into their own approach. They sound like themselves now.<\/p>\n
Lightbringer <\/i>never really functions as its own album; it sounds like songs from the other album, so you can listen to them both as a piece or mix and match the best to make your own playlist (kind of like GnR\u2019s Use Your Illusion<\/i>, but better). Or think of it as an EP. \u201cBefore The Fire\u201d is the clear highlight, a psychedelic rocker with some great Jay Buchanon vocal work. \u201cRedemption\u201d and \u201cMosaic\u201d are slower pieces, not terribly memorable, though the latter has a bit of uplift befitting of the album title.<\/p>\n
\u201cSweet Life\u201d is an efficient, bluesy rocker, spacious yet catchy, while \u201cMercy\u201d is the only track that doesn\u2019t really work for me; as such, it is of course the first single selected. It hews closely to established Rival Sons tropes and therefore is less than the more ambitious pieces on both albums. Speaking of which, \u201cDarkfighter\u201d is the opening track and, at nine minutes, packs a wild ride from rustic folk to arena rock to a truly strange instrumental section that\u2019s mostly flamenco guitar over drums, followed by a keyboard solo. <\/p>\n