ROLLIN' DICE ~ WAY TO THE SUN ... review

Led Zeppelin's charismatic frontman Robert Plant once said "The past is a stepping stone, not a millstone" and Greece's Rollin' Dice have taken that to heart the trio, consisting of Antonis Karathanasopoulos (Guitar & Vocals), Giannis Robas (Bass Guitar) and Aggelos Kalogiannis(Drums),unashamedly borrowing from the past as a means to make music for the present, something that becomes quite obvious when listening to the bands brand new album "Way To The Sun"

From the moment the needle/laser, or whatever initiates play on your mode of listening, drops on first track "Live It Up" you know your in for a ride of epic proportions through a world populated by crunching riffage, thundering rhythms and those type of vocals usually accompanied by thrusting pelvic muscles and a rock star stance, (ok the last two don't apply as the vocalist is also the guitarist but you get the visual imagery). Yes folks we are talking old school hard rock here, shot through with a touch of bluesy swagger and classic rock polish and fronted by the sort of vocals you thought you had heard the last of when Ronnie James Dio sadly left this world. Fear not though you doomers, grungers and stoners, who may be thinking you have stumbled into some retro flavoured 70's half-hell, there is enough grit and grime to be found here among the eight songs on offer to please even the most discerning of you. Heavy metal bluster, grunge dynamics, stoner fuzz and doomic atmospherics can all be found lurking somewhere within songs with titles like "Common Lies","Into the Graveyard" and "Roundabout" giving them an obvious nostalgic feel yet at the same time one that is very much relevant to today's underground scene.

"Way To The Sun" is an album that, it could be argued, falls under the description "classic rock", not because it was made way back in an age when giants of rock like Zeppelin, Purple and Sabbath roamed the hills but because it has an essence of that era, others might argue however that it is just old fashioned "blues rock" brought up to date with a few fuzz pedals and a crisper production, opinions will vary but what cannot be denied is that Rollin' Dice have, with "Way To The Sun", made an album that ROCKS!
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© 2017 Frazer Jones