Greenleaf – Hear the Rivers

With each new release of Greenleaf that recipe is expected that lovers Stoner long for: a good dose of riffs heavy and steaming on a forceful rhythmic base, if possible seasoning all this with an inspired voice that does not clash with such company. Well that is precisely what our Swedish friends have again achieved with Hear the Rivers (2018), that generous portion of rock Aged that could well have been born in the deepest America, but that despite its provenance handle perfectly Tommi Holappa and Sebastian Olsson that, on guitar and drums respectively, have ended up becoming the undisputed captains of a formation immune to its many component changes in recent years, which remains faithful to its sound and its followers.

Hardly a couple of years we have had to wait since his last job, Rise Above the Meadow (2016), and this time to the change of bassist we have to add the always delicate task of incorporating a new singer, but we can affirm that Arvid Hallagard He carries out a job that lives up to expectations, showing from the outset a complicity with the rest of the band that earn him the job on his own merits.

The first bars of “Let It Out!”, The song that opens the album, make it clear to us where we are, with that powerful rhythmic section opening a half-time typical of the band, giving way without delay to what could be the star song from the album, “Sweet is the Sound”: with one of those riffs that hook you from the first listen and a southern vocal melody that becomes instantly classic, some Greenleaf More inspired than ever, they show us that it will be worth dedicating all our attention while listening to their new album, where there will also be room for those more fast-paced house songs, such as “A Point of a Secret”, “Oh My Bones ”or“ High Fever ”.

With “The Rumble and the Weight” we come to what should be without a doubt one of the highlights of the entire album, where the band dares to spend more than six minutes and takes us into more progressive and introspective terrain, as if they wanted to prepare the terrain for “We Are the Pawns”, one of the most emotional songs we’ve ever heard from Greenleaf, with a Arvid Hallagard specially inspired that finally seems to dare to be placed between a melodic Josh Homme and our always longed for Chris Cornell, with that single end of Tommi Holappa that takes us to the top.

The only thing missing to complete such an album was a finishing touch that did not detract, and there is no doubt that “The Rivers Lullaby”, the longest and most experimental cut on the album, was the right theme for this task, even going so far as to render tribute to the mythical Kyuss, with that devastating moment of Stoner desert like those of Joshua Tree.

In short, despite those who speak of a stagnant genre and little prone to evolution, records like this demonstrate that it is possible to make a rock fresh and effective without going through the hoop of the obnoxious fads to use and throw away, so unfortunately present in music today.

Pascual Val Infante