Review Summary: The amount of sound that Sacred Trees makes for being a quartet is—simply put—amazing. Some say Psyche-Rock is a dying genre for old people, but the energy and life that this band breathes suggests otherwise.
Sacred Trees is a delicious Psychedelic Hard Rock group from Eugene and Portland collectively. They are comprised of Eric James on drums, Sophia Resk on tambourine, Trevor Berecek on bass and David Rivas on guitar. They’ve been playing together since the spring of 2016, and their new self-titled LP is by far the most ambitious and professionally driven record they have produced.
At the beginning of the album, we dive into Flying High’s bright, driving riff with reverb saturated vocal chants that cascade into a droning bridge, complete with spaced out tremolo and flourishing bass strides. The main guitar hook harnesses the three chord progression with chunky overdrive and intermittent wah pedal action.
The tonal motif throughout the album consists of echoing vocal sections within a stream of David’s clean and distant sounding guitar, accented by the chiming polyrhythmic arrangement of Eric’s straightforward, precise drumming, with Sophia’s perfectly nestled tambourine marches. Everything is blended together by Trevor’s effortlessly meandering bass runs that waver between slightly distorted, and undeniably dirty and fragrant.
Fans of Thee Oh Sees, T. Rex, The Melvins, King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard, and Dinosaur Jr. would be excited by their deliriously infectious sound.
Cops Can’t Read is a fun little diddly paying homage to the classic twelve-bar blues structure with stops every turnaround that just oozes out David’s gushing guitar tone. It’ll have you bouncing around pounding Hamms-in-a-can and taking a pulls off of strangers’ spliffs in the crowd before you realize you forgot your vape pen.
The amount of sound that Sacred Trees makes for being a quartet is—simply put—amazing. Some say Psyche-Rock is a dying genre for old people, but the amount of energy and life that this band breathes suggests otherwise. I am totally excited about the direction Sacred Trees is headed in, and love seeing their bid to reinvent the Psyche-Rock wheel start to flourish. Keep killing it, homies.