Madrid Spain was once known as "Ursaria" which, as those with a degree in Latin will know, translates as "land of the bears" due to the amount of the large furry, and often bad tempered, mammals that were once found in its surrounding forests. The sound of roaring bears might have gone now but there is still plenty of growling coming out of the region courtesy of the grizzly riffage and rhythms created by Spanish groovsters Electric Valley.
The trio of Mario Garcia (guitars), Charlie Sanchez (drums) and Miky Simon (bass/vocals) have this year followed up on the interest garnered for their excellent 2015 album "Multiverse" with the release of another slice of Mediterranean flavoured, space themed, stonerized hard rock flying under the flag of " Two Realities at War" ( nooirax producciones).
Thick, chunky powerchords, scorching guitar solo's, fills and motifs combined with bone-shaking bass and pulverising percussion coated in big throaty clean vocals are the hallmarks of Electric Valley's brand of sonic attack, The band use these tools to great effect on songs such as "The First Contact", "War of Cosmos" and " Robotsun" but there's more to Electric Valley than just gnarly riffage and pounding rhythm, this band know a thing or two about musical dynamics and structure too. The songs that make up "Two Realities at War" are put together with an element of light and shade texturing with less abrasive passages of psychedelic rock sitting comfortably next to those of gritty hard/stoner bluster giving songs like "Galactus" and "Lost In Eternity" a fuller and more rounded sound, that many other bands of their ilk struggle to achieve, with well written and arranged songs that ebb and flow between heavy and gentle with a delicious and consummate ease.
"Multiverse" was a spectacular explosion of stoner/psych brilliance that it seemed would be a hard act to follow but Electric Valley have with "Two Realities at War" not only matched that brilliance but outshone it.
Check it out .....
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