PARANOID REVERB ~ BILLION DROPS .... review

Strap yourselves in, you are about to be taken on a ride through raunchy stonerized hard rock territories with only the occasional detours into mellower waters to catch your breath. Please do not try to leave the vehicle during this journey as this could result in you seriously missing out on some damn fine grooviness! Your drivers on this journey will be Christos Papaioannou ( vocals); Themis Georgiades (guitars); Petros Xevgenis (guitars); Timos Tyflioris (bass) and Xenofon Zafiropoulos (drums/percussion), who collectively answer to the name Paranoid Reverb, the vehicle you will be riding in is called "Billion Drops", a new model manufactured by Made of Stone Recordings.

Ok the intro piece to this review does have an essence of tongue in cheek humour about it but there is no getting away from the fact that with "Billion Drops" it  does feel like Paranoid Reverb are taking the listener on a journey of sorts. From the ear pinning crunch'n'roll of opening track "Maze" through to the start quiet/get loud//finish quiet dynamics of "Explode" Paranoid Reverb grab the listener by the scruff of the neck and drag him/her with them, refusing to let go until they have delivered that very last note. This is a band that are not all about the crunch either they have a soulful melancholic side to them too, as demonstrated on the albums two slow burners  "Rain" and "Angry Sun", both of which climb to noisy crescendo's but do so from humble and tranquil beginnings. Musically the band are unfaultable,   Georgiades and Xevgenis' guitars weave in and around each other sometimes playing off each other, sometimes sparring for dominance, Tyflioris' holds down the bottom end superbly his bass growling and booming like rumbling thunder while Zafiropoulos' holds the groove together with some impressive busy and industrious drumming. If you write songs that tell stories then you need a narrator who can do justice to those stories, in Christos Papaioannou Paranoid Reverb have a storyteller of rare quality, his huge graveled tones roar croon and howl with soulful gravitas and have that lived in quality perfect for music of this ilk.

We at Desert Psychlist realise that our constant harping on about the quality of music coming out of Greece might seem like we are on a retainer from the Greek Tourist Board but how could we NOT gush enthusiastically about a country that keeps churning out one great band after another.  With this in mind though we will try to keep this summing up simple and to the point ....Paranoid Reverb are a GREAT band, "Billion Drops" is a GREAT album! 

Check it out .... 

© 2020 Frazer Jones