Valley of the Sun: The Chariot

Here is another new band for me. Valley of the Sun hail from Cincinnati, Ohio and have been belting out the riffs since 2010. They have built up an extensive discography thus far having released a couple EPs and four full length albums:

Electric Talons of the Thunderhawk (2013)
Volume Rock (2016)
Old Gods (2019)
The Chariot (2022)

The band has gone through considerable lineup changes through the course of their career with only Ryan Ferrier (vocals, guitar) being an original member. The rest of the band members are:

Chris Sweeney (bass, keyboards)
Josh Pilot (guitars)
Lex Vegas (drums)

The Chariot is just an excellent slice of heavy riff rock, catchy, bluesy, with fantastic vocals and grooves all over the place. The disc begins with the powerful “Sweet Sands�, with an old school ‘70s feel, the riffs rumbling and tumbling and the vocals at their soulful best. This had me thinking of Chris Cornell and you can take that as high praise indeed. The slowly burning lead guitar drips with emotion in the heavy retro rocking “Images� where Ferrier really belts out the lead vocals in convincing fashion. A nod to bands like Alice In Chains and Soundgarden. A fast-paced groove breaks down into submerged, slowly evolving guitar riffs laced with psychedelic tones in the excellent “Devil I’ve Become� and in the title track, clean and distorted guitar and another fantastic solo will take you back to the early ‘70s. Atmospheric fragments of clean guitar adds a little tripped out spaciness to their sound. Another fine groove can be heard in the robust yet restrained rock of “Headlights�, while “As We Decay� is soaked with passion and blues inflected heaviness. A muted guitar riff begins “Running Out Of Love�, another catchy rocker with outstanding guitar work.

Turn up the volume and relinquish yourself to all that Valley of the Sun has to offer. Now excuse me while I give this one another spin!

A Ripple Music release.

Track Listing:
1. Sweet Sands (4:58)
2. Images (4:37)
3. Devil I’ve Become (4:38)
4. The Chariot (4:56)
5. Headlights (4:12)
6. As We Decay (4:48)
7. Running Out Of Love (5:43)
8. Sunblind (3:18)
9. The Flood (5:06)
10. Colosseum (4:16)

Added: March 25th 2023
Reviewer: Jon Neudorf
Score:
Related Link: Band @ Bandcamp
Hits: 667
Language: english

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