Thursday, 12 January 2023

WIDERSIN ~ LOST IN GREY ..... review


Its not that often Desert Psychlist gets to review straight down the middle old school hard rock/heavy metal but the opportunity to do so was afforded to us when, quite by chance, we came across Greek combo WiderSin's debut album "Lost In Grey" nestling unloved in Bandcamp's heavy rock section. As is sometimes the case with bands new to Bandcamp there was very little on the bands album page to recommend them to listeners other than that the band hailed from Athens, Greece. Now regular readers will know that the Psychlist has a soft spot for music hailing from the Greek underground so we thought why not give said album a cursory spin, and if we don't like it we will simply move on, wow what a great decision that turned out to be.

"Cross the Line" was the first thing to erupt out of our speakers that fateful day and it became immediately obvious that WiderSin were not one of those stoner, psych or doom bands we had become used to encountering from Greece but where an ass whooping hard rock/heavy metal combo with a sound that blended 70's hard rock with 80's heavy metal (not the hair variety) and had in its armoury both melody and muscle. Another thing that became apparent quite quickly was the quality of the bands vocalist, Kostas Bouyotis , whose powerful clean distinctive vocals swooped and soared with rare clarity over the crunching chord progressions, booming bottom end and thunderous rhythms expertly laid beneath them by guitarist Karafyllis Giannoulis, bassist Yiorgos Moraitis and drummer Nikos Akousoglou. Surely this was a one off we thought that day, a happy accident, but next song "1000 Passwords" turned out to be just as good, if not better, and along with its superb riffs and outstanding vocals also boasted some sterling lead guitar work. And that is how it continued throughout the rest of the album, each song as strong and impactful as it predecessor with even the obligatory torch songs, "Stone" and "Port" earning our respect by not sounding cliched or over melancholic. What we were not expecting however was for the album to come to a close in such epic style as it did with  the exceptionally tasty "Father's Son" a spectacular tome packed to the rafters with searing guitar solo's, throbbing bass lines and tight solid drumming, eleven minutes plus of exceptional molten groove, a sort of "Free Bird" for metalheads.


WiderSin are a fairly new band (to us anyway) so you might expect the grooves that inhabit their debut album "Lost In Grey" to come across a little naïve and raw but that is just not the case, the band are on fire throughout and those grooves are bolstered by a production that allows each instrument the chance to shine and places the vocals perfectly in the mix in order to maximise their impact, a superb debut on every level.
Check it out .... 

© 2023 Frazer Jones

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