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Are you ready to get down? Devil Down that is, the newest from Phoenix foursome Twingiant. One can feel the desert winds blowing through their southern-fried stoner sludge.
It starts off eezy breezy but soon enough the chugging rhythms and foot-stompin' riffs take hold and drive the listener into the dust. But there's a balance to be had here as well. As primal as it can be, especially the rhythm section, the guitars are surprisingly deft and able to rend the sky in two with emotional lead that dance through the cool night air.
It's heavy as a lead weight but instead of being full-on sludge, Twingiant take you on a retro, hard rockin' ride across the black top laid down decades ago. "Through the Motions" features some seriously sweet licks and an old-school, stoner/psych vibe amid its hardened rhythms. "Tiger Lily" hints at The Sword with striking guitar harmonies and were it not for the fiery bellows it would definitely seem to come from another time.
Speaking of that bellow, it's nasty. It's like vocalist/bassist Jarrod Le Blanc didn't just drink the whiskey, but chewed up and swallowed the broken glass too and growls through the bubbling blood at the back of his throat. On "Daisy Cutter" though, during the instrumental section one may think Twingiant could do without a singer at all until the beastly roar obliterates any notion of the thought.
Twingiant weave through an array of tempos to infiltrate the mind and soul of the listener. Jeff Ramon pummels with as much venom as Le Blanc and his amp-wrecking bass. Tony Gallegos and Nikos Mixas work in tandem to keep the listener both grounded and weightless. Their solos are more about evoking feeling than dazzling with technically.
Devil Down is an unassuming and honest album barreling through the desert, choking on the dust but maintaining a zest for fueling a retro-styled trip. Muscle meets melody, retro meets the roar and we'll gladly follow the Devil Down below the horizon with the setting sun's glow in our face.
