Saturday 19 July 2014

Astralnaut - Thieves, Beggars and Swine - Review

Thieves, Beggars and Swine cover art

Album Type: Album
Date Released: May 14th 2014
Label: Self Released

Thieves, Beggars and Swine - track listing:

1.Ego Eccentric 05:34
2.Mac Tire 06:30
3.Neopium 07:02
4.Utopian Dawn 04:53
5.Dethroned 07:46

Bio

Astralnaut, formed in the latter half of 2011, are a stoner metal band from Co. Armagh, Ireland.
The band have gigged ferociously over Ireland with 80 plus dates racked up in the past year and a half, touring 8 counties in 8 days during October 2013 to promote their release ‘In The Gaze Of The Gods’, alongside their debut release ‘Back to the Bog’. They have shared stages with Red Fang (America), Black Magician (England), Rising (Denmark), Trecker (Germany), Crossholder (Hungary) plus many great bands from the same isle, such as a Slomatics, War Iron, Axis Of and Bad Boat to name a few. Astralnaut released their third studio endeavor during May 2014, entitled 'Thieves, Beggars and Swine' a 5 track EP of stoner doom metal and has been well received on the local scene and beyond.

Astralnaut have no time to slack and don’t plan on it. It‘s exciting times musically in Ireland (and indeed the world) and they are honored to be a part of it.

Band Members

Thomas Mallon - Vocals
Gaz Treanor - Lead Guitar
JonJoe Harrison - Bass Guitar + Backing Vocals
Stephen Todd - Drums
Pearse Donnelly - Rhythm Guitar + Backing Vocals

Review:

Almost a year since I reviewed their debut EP – In The Gaze Of The Gods – One of Ireland's finest Sludge/Doom/Stoner Metal/Hard Rock Band of outlaws – Astralnaut are back with their latest album - Thieves, Beggars and Swine. Nothing much has changed since their last EP apart from the riffs are LOUDER and HEAVIER than ever.

Thieves, Beggars and Swine – sees the band having one hell of a party from start to finish. As the riffs never let up not even for a single second. Tracks such as Ego Eccentric and Mac Tire have a confident blues-like NOLA swagger to them with a hint of Thin Lizzy twin guitar worship thrown in just for the sake of it.

Lead Vocalist – Thomas – channels his inner rock god with conviction and he has one hell of a voice that can rival some of the best in the business. When this dude sings you can feel and hear the passion coming from every angle. The thumping rhythm section of Stephen and Jonjoe on Drums and Bass respectively form part of an indestructible juggernaut primed for one thing. OBLITERATE EVERYTHING IN SIGHT!!!

Gaz and Pearse play their own part within the Astralnaut brotherhood by adding a ton of groovy riffs for the rest of the band to build upon. I urge you not to do your best Air Guitar impression when listening to Neopium as the style of different riffs will have your heart pumping 100 times faster.

Astralnaut are a band that we all should be shouting from the rooftops at how fucking great they are. They have a brilliant reputation within the Irish/UK Hard Rock/Stoner Metal scene. Thieves, Beggars and Swine proves how lucky the Stoner Metal world is to have a band such as Astralnaut.

This is another superb release from these brilliant hard-rocking riffsters. Plus the artwork from W. Ralph Walters is fucking awesome as well.

Thieves, Beggars and Swine is now available to buy from BandCamp now.

Check The Band From Links Below

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Written by Steve Howe