Monster Truck are Hamilton Ontario’s contribution to the whole revisiting of retro rock – and a mighty fine rock n roll band they are. This is the band’s second album, and a continuation from their first album, Furiosity. Formed back in 2011, the band’s rise as been quick – mainly due to the fact they write great songs that rock hard with big hooks and melodies.
The opening salvo of Why Are You Not Rockin’ and Don’t Tell Me How To Live will have you bouncing round your room of doom singing along. Great stuff!!! She’s A Witch has a very heavy Sabbath vibe going down at the intro, and then it breaks into an almost southern groove with a great old school solo and a killer ending. For The People has a guest appearance from Big Wreck’s Ian Thornley, and is another visit to southern territory with an almost underlying country vibe. A big shout out to Jon Harvey who has such an amazing powerful voice that really carries the tunes along.
Black Forest opens up Side 2 and slows the pace right down with a killer soulful ballad. Another Man’s Shoes has a big fat riff that grooves hard. Things Get Better is driven by the bounce of the opening piano, and again the southern vibe is very strong. If your from the GTA, then chances are you will be a Maple Leafs fan, and to have your track played after every goal the Leafs score must be an awesome event – that’s what happened with their track The Enforcer. The big sing along whoa whoa’s lend themselves to any sporting event.
Over to Side 3 we go with To The Flame, the huge fat riff gives way to a slow almost funk groove – with a vocal that reminds me of Chris Cornell. Midnight (which is a bonus track to this version) is next and has a choppy heavy riff and groove. New Souls follows and is a great modern rock song that drives and pounds hard. Enjoy The Time is the last track and has a heavy Black Crowes vibe as Side 4 is given up to the dreaded etched side – and we all know how I feel about those!
A really good record that just rocks hard and has a couple of nice slow moments that breaks up the pace nicely.
9/10 from The Grooveman.
