Turn up the volume and kick out the jams motherfuckers! Sonic Flower’s new full-length album, “Me and My Bellbottom Blues,” is one HEAVY psychedelic doom experience featuring plenty of tasty sounding riffs and killer bluesy 70’s hard rock inspired jams.
Based out of Japan, the band formed around 2001 as a Church of Misery side project. One can definitely hear the similarities between this band and Church of Misery, however, I would say that Sonic Flower's sound incorporates more bluesy hard rock elements. In my opinion, this new album really captures that groovy hard rock attitude, which takes you back to when bands would turn up the volume on their amps and crank out some hard rocking riffs. Throughout the entire album the band seems truly locked into these solid sounding compositions that flow with a very confident heavy and groovy energy.
Out of the seven tracks on the album, I find that thanks in large part to the strong production and really catchy sounding arrangements, listeners will not be disappointed when listening to this release. The first song, “Swineherd,” is one hard hitting psychedelic hard rock experience containing some really addictive guitar parts. The lead guitar playing reminds me of something straight out of the 60’s/70’s hard rock scene with that killer tone which makes the notes come vibrantly flowing out of the speakers. Other tracks like, “Love Like Rubber” and “Black Sheep,” are also very powerful sounding songs, especially when pertaining to the bass and drum playing. If you are fan of mighty sounding rhythms that allow for the guitar to explore these trippy thunderous landscape with an endless amount of distorted freedom, then you will find yourself really digging the songs on this album.
One song that I really liked which took on a very old school bluesy rock sound by coming up with a very clever blues rock inspired guitar intro was, “Quicksand Planet.” I believe the band did an excellent job arranging the song, and the vocal performance really caught my attention. I thought throughout the entire album the singer did a tremendous job in terms of his delivery and how his vocals complimented the compositions. Overall, the musicianship is so tight that the album may not come across as something new to the world of rock and metal, but the band's passion and fearsome drive definitely wins you over from start to finish.
For anyone looking for a groovy hard rock release with some mesmerizing bluesy riffs, then “Me and My Bellbottom Blues,” is an album that I highly recommend. I need to give a huge shoutout to Yukito Okazaki for mixing this album, because he did such an amazing job capturing the band’s profound heavy rocking energy on each track. With so many bands complicating their releases by doing way too much and losing sight of what makes a killer hard rock album, I really hope people take the time to check out what Sonic Flower is doing, because this style of music perfectly captures the true raw essence of rock and roll.
Check out the full release below :
Heavy Psych Sounds Records :
https://heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/sonic-flower-me-and-my-bellbottom-blues
Sonic Flower Facebook:
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