Attalla hail from Wisconsin, and we have here their self-titled debut album for Shadow Kingdom Records, to be available on CD, cassette, and digital formats. While somewhat brief with only 6 songs (perfect to fit on cassette actually), the band make the most of their time here, hitting on all sorts of early Black Sabbath styled riffery and '70s hard rock swagger. All the tunes are single word titled, but that matters not when you've got such stoneriffic grooves as on "Light" or the crushing "Haze", the latter of which is mostly instrumental and features some sizzling guitar work. "Lust" and "Thorn are both quite simply massive sounding, and if you love big fat guitar & bass riffs, these will certainly be for you. Lead singer Cody Stieg has a high pitched style that's not unlike a cross between Jim Morrison and Ian Astbury, but he's often straining here and buried in the mix behind the wall of riffs, so it's hard to really judge his performance at times. On a few of the tracks, like on "Veil" for instance, he briefly makes an appearance and mostly gives way to the crushing arrangements. The dark, menacing "Doom" reminds of classic Danzig with its evil riff and ominous vocal, though the drums are somewhat 'clanky', an issue I have with the production of the entire album.
Overall, this is a very solid debut from a band I'd like to hear more from in the not too distant future.
Track Listing
1) Light
2) Haze
3) Lust
4) Thorn
5) Veil
6) Doom
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