Anyone who came across Band of Skulls' sophomore album, Sweet Sour, in 2012 would have heard the sound of a band that was more than conversant with the Led Zeppelin songbook but who had no intention of staying put in the early Seventies. The chugging guitar was there alright, but there was plenty more than that going on in the likes of “Bruises” and “You’re Not Pretty but You’ve Got It Going On”.
Follow-up, Himalayan, breaks still further from the strict blues-rock template with the introduction of a bucketful of other textures. That said, the echo of Jimmy Page’s crunching riffs and Robert Plant’s moaning and wailing is still never too far from the surface.
This works well on the almost glam-rock “Brothers and Sisters”, whose “We’re all brothers and sisters in the end” refrain, while hardly a philosophical breakthrough, at least suggests Band of Skulls are on the side of righteousness. “Yaatian”, however, plants its flag firmly in the dreaded territory of the rock ballad and almost begs the listener to thrust a cigarette lighter in the air. Fortunately, this proves to be an aberration as there is also the wild, Southern-fried boogie of “Be Mine” and the more downtempo, almost Walker Brothers-esque “Get Yourself Together”.
It's the more familiar blues-rock riffage that really gets the blood pumping on Himalayan, though. “Asleep at the Wheel”, “Hoochie Coochie”, “I Guess I Know You Very Well” and “Heaven’s Key” turn up the volume and let Band of Skulls' early Seventies influences show themselves more clearly. This is music with a swagger that is aimed firmly at the hips. However, my guess is that it's in the live arena, in the middle of a sweaty crowd, where these songs are really going to shine.
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