Remember when heavy rock bands wrote songs? In the early '70s, Grand Funk, Bang, and Deep Purple brought hooks and choruses to seriously weighty tunes. Portland, Oregon's Holy Grove walk in the footsteps of tradition, pitting soulful vocals, searing guitar solos, and swinging grooves into their own dinosaur stomp. After wowing US audiences since their inception in 2013, the doom blues group is now ready to deliver their self-titled debut, with seven tracks full of blazing riffage, piercing wails, and enough rhythmic heft to satisfy today's doom-hungry audience. Andrea Vidal's lyrics of myth and fantasy coast on a massive magic carpet of guitar licks, kept aloft by a pulverizing rhythm section. Holy Grove is far more than a toe dipped in the occult spring. They produce a patiently crafted statement of intent with major love and assistance from master engineer Billy Anderson (Sleep's Dopesmoker, Melvins). For fans of: Blue Cheer, MC5, Clutch, Black Sabbath, Red Fang.
