Album Details

• Artist: Thinning The Herd
• Album: Oceans Rise
• Label: St. Mark's Records
• Year of Release: 2011
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: patchen on 2011-03-28

Nothing new here-and in a good way! Thinning the Herd offer stripped down, old-school, plug in and let rip, greasy hard rock, heavy on the riffs and perfectly grimy solos. While skirting the line on stoner metal here and there. "Oceans Rise" is just a good blast of hard rock kickass. It would be no stretch at all to find these songs in between Alice in Chains or Circus of Power on a radio station with some sac.

"Look Behind," "Binge" and "Chill In The Air" are mid-tempo rockers with ample burst of mighty fury. Slower tunes like "My Wave" and "Defiler" are no less powerful, and the down-tunings are perfect for change of pace. The only real dud is "Wide Crossing," which starts off as if it is the obligatory metal ballad, then revs up and wanders around for five minutes.

Thinning the Herd are heavy, gritty, and seem to have translated their live sound into the studio with little effort. "Oceans Rise" is killer in all the ways metalheads mean when they say that, but classic rock fans will find some hope in this record too. Get to a live show, call in some requests, and let's try to get this NYC heavyweight some notice!

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