Rapid Fire: Greta Van Fleet, Dream Troll, Wayward Sons

Usually with Rapid Fire posts, I look at three older albums by more established bands. This time, I'm mixing it up! I recently wrote a blog post about the best/worst music of 2017 and, in true Riffs And Raffs fashion, discovered two new bands/albums that were pretty decent from last year. So after seeking out a third album to write about, I decided to dedicate a Rapid Fire post to looking at three bands/albums I could've and probably should've written about in the RARRAMAMSPAs, starting with the band that deserves way more attention in the Classic Rock community.


1. From The Fires - Greta Van Fleet

There's a lot of talk now about deceased Rock stars being brought back to life on stage through the magic of holograms. I'm not sure if this is something Led Zeppelin will ever consider when one or more additional members of the band bite the dust and they're no longer capable of touring but after listening to this album, I came to the conclusion that we'd be far better off with Page & Plant signing over the rights to their back catalogue to Greta Van Fleet, the new Led Zeppelin. It's almost scary how close to Page and Plant guitarist Jacob Kiszka and vocalist Joshua Kiszka sound in the album opener "Safari Song", one of the finest Rock album openers I've heard in a while.
Luckily, whilst it's easily the highlight of the album, From The Fires maintains the quality of a Led Zepp record, from the use of Psychedelic organ in "Flower Power" to the Bluesy numbers like their cover of "Meet On The Ledge", without sounding like a hacky tribute album. The band are able to add their own flair to each track, giving us songs like "Highway Tune" dripping with sweet Southern Rock riffs or "Talk On The Street", a modern take on a song that sounds like it's straight out of the 60s. It's clear Greta Van Fleet know how to capture the best aspects of Classic Rock whilst enhancing them with modern recording technology.
Whilst "Safari Song" may have set the bar unreasonably high for the band to reach again, Greta Van Fleet have proven their ability to Rock with the best of 'em...literally, the best. If you can write a Led Zeppelin song better than some of the most popular Led Zeppelin songs out there, you've already passed the test. I recommend this album to fans of Classic Rock or just Rock music in general and I cannot wait to hear Greta Van Fleet's own "Immigrant Song" or "Stairway To Heaven", assuming they follow in Led Zepp's footsteps and become even heavier over the next few years.

1. Safari Song

2. Edge Of Darkness

3. Flower Power

4. A Change Is Gonna Come

5. Highway Tune

6. Meet On The Ledge

7. Talk On The Street

8. Black Smoke Rising

ALBUM RATING - 8/10

Next is a NWOTHM album from UK Indie Metal outfit Dream Troll, complete with an umloud in their name.

2. The Knight Of Rebellion - Dream Troll

It's fashionable for a lot of modern Metal bands to ape off Iron Maiden (usually just Iron Maiden) with some kind of shitty contemporary element but Dream Troll mix it up slightly. It's clear that they're fans of 80s Metal but rather than the traditional classics like Megadeth, Judas Priest and Black Sabbath, these guys seem to favour the mythical Prog-Metal variety such as Queensryche, Dio and Dream Theater. Atmospheric album opener "Time For Vengeance" starts off on a surprisingly grand scale for a band that self produced their record. There are synth/piano accompaniments, multi-layered guitars and vocal effects you wouldn't expect to find on a debut.

Most of the songs are over seven minutes long (or just below) but if you like your Metal short and energetic, Dream Troll have got you covered in the form of "Velvet Drawbridge" and "A Fairy's Tale", my two favourites from the album. However, whilst I'd normally say that an album with long and short songs is versatile enough for fans of both types of songwriting, The Knight Of Rebellion is definitely better suited for those who like their Metal long and grand. Songs such as "Mons Ominosus" and "Unwanted By The Gods" start off with heavier riffs and faster rhythms but suffer when it gets to the inevitable "slow bit" about 2/3s of the way through, which is fine if you want to take the music in and go on a Proggy journey but not if you want Heavy Metal at its most pure.

I can't fault the musicianship of the album and the production is surprisingly great for this Leeds based band (although having seen footage of them playing live, I'm not sure if the vocalist should be too reliant on studio magic). The question is where are the band going to go from here, as they've proven that they don't need a record label to enhance the production values of their music and the Prog-Metal nature of their music means they're already ahead of the need to experiment. Regressing to Speed or Thrash Metal at this point might be great for someone like me but I can't speak for their fans, meaning Dream Troll might be resigned to releasing the same album for a while. However, at least it's a decent album and I'll be there to check out the second one...so long as it's not all eight minute epics.

1. Time For Vengeance

2. Velvet Drawbridge

3. Mons Ominosus

4. Lost In The Pages

5. A Fairy's Tale

6. Unwanted By The Gods

7. (The) Earthbound Betrayal

ALBUM RATING - 7/10

Finally, we're back to Rock with a band who may have listened to Kansas at some point.

3. Ghosts Of Yet To Come - Wayward Sons

I'm still not sure if this is the best album I could've picked for this list, as it's taken me days to get through it and I'm still hugely indifferent to it. Ghosts Of Yet To Come is a pretty standard Rock album in a similar vein to Foo Fighters or a less heavy Black Star Riders. Unfortunately, compared to bands like The Treatment or Inglorious, Wayward Sons lack that one great high octane Rock song needed to elevate the rest of the album. Album opener "Alive" should've come after lead single "Until The End" as it's a pretty dull intro to an album that promises something with more excitement in the cover art alone. It's slow and easily forgettable, completely the wrong way to kick the album off if you're an up and coming band.
Luckily, "Until The End" has a bit more to it. It's got some good little riffs and great vocal melodies but the whole album suffers from being a little too plain and musically safe. It's not that it lacks energy or talent, as the band clearly have both. This isn't some cynical going-through-the-motions attempt at staying relevant or topping up the bank account like most of the bigger albums from last year so at least it has that going for it. Unfortunately, that's all it really has. Effort. Mediocre background music by a band that would probably put on a solid warm-up show for a much better act but couldn't lead their own gig with this material alone.
As much as I've essentially shit on Ghosts Of Yet To Come, it certainly wasn't the worst thing released in 2017. The worst thing about the album is there's a lot of dull filler but there are a couple of decent songs if your experience with Rock music is fairly slim. Whilst there are hints of AC/DC and other classic bands throughout the album, the record seems to be mostly inspired by modern Rock bands so if that's your jam, you'll probably get more out of this than I did. However, if you prefer Rock from the 70s and/or 80s, you're better off listening to the Greta Van Fleet one.

1. Alive

2. Until The End

3. Ghost

4. Don't Wanna Go

5. Give It Away

6. Killing Time

7. Crush

8. Be Still

9. Small Talk

10. Something Wrong

ALBUM RATING - 5/10

There are many other albums from 2017 that are probably worth discussing but I hope you enjoyed reading about these three! If there are any 2017 albums you recommend, let me know via Twitter or the comment section.