Review Summary: Navarone doesn't reinvent the wheel, but they certainly know how to polish the tires.
I was first introduced to Navarone by way of their song "Highland Bull", who my friend suggested had a strong classic rock vibe to its sound. I almost had to correct him in a way, as there was certainly more going on with this band than just as a duplication of 1970's musical styles. Formed in 2008, this 5-piece act is supported by the powerful vocal range of Merijn van Haren. It is worth mentioning that some of these sounds prominent on the 30+ minute EP that featured "Highland Bull" have put themselves to the background in favor of even more musical progression on the part of this band. Initially, they seemed to resemble your typical Hard Rock band, just trying to dig for some past influences on their debut title "A Darker Shade Of White". Vim and Vigor however sees this group heading a different direction, one that favors the Alternative stylings of Post-Punk, the more melodic side of Post-Hardcore and the darker appeal of Grunge's D chords on some select tracks. Their original sound isn't completely overwhelmed, but it's clear that on Vim and Vigor, the band has taken a different approach to their music.
The opening track "Time" is incredibly bombastic and for all intensive purposes, it's a pretty robust and efficient way of grabbing the listener's ears for what will eventually become an eleven song journey. This track comes off as pretty accessible, but at the same time it avoids the standard "chorus verse chorus" formula that often becomes a cliche moment of unoriginality for many bands. At first, van Haren's vocals seem to flow in pretty calmly, only for the listener to be bombarded by a very strong Black Sabbath inspired guitar riff. The song then drops off into some acoustics in the background before finally exploding into full use of van Haren's vocal range. It is in this moment that the listener realizes that they're not dealing with a standard derivative rock band. One strength of Navarone is that while they aren't doing anything revolutionary with their sound, its their unique blending of influences that makes their music worthy of repeated listening.
The second song Brother is almost a complete departure from the opening song "Time", which sees van Haren show us the lighter and almost Post-Hardcore inspired side of his voice, which may be off putting for those who don't like listening to singers who use the higher pitched register of their voice. This, however, becomes interesting, because at least for a moment, it almost feels as if the singer from Coheed and Cambria or Pierce The Veil is temporarily fronting Led Zeppelin. An odd combination I realize, but it's appropriate here given the context of how this song comes off to the listener. There also seems to be some influences from the Rx Bandits in this band's sound as well, which makes me really question whether or not this was intentional or if they even know who this band is.
Regardless of this exposure being here or not, it's hard not to liken the chord progressions on Navarone's "Murder and Misery" to some of Rx Bandits' early albums, especially those with the Ska and Progressive Rock inspired arrangements. Personally, I've really found myself gravitating towards some of the more genius moments on "Indigo Blue", which probably has one of the best song buildups that I've heard in quite some time by a contemporary rock band. Influences from Led Zeppelin will once again become apparent on this song, and the vocal style of Chris Cornell from Soundgarden is additionally given a nod by van Haren at certain parts of this song as well. All together, the guitar solo on this song almost sounds like something of an early 90's Rage Against The Machine song. At some point one has to question whether or not Tom Morello was phoned in to make a guest appearance. Perhaps not, but what is certain is that Navarone has certainly given us a pretty strong Alternative Rock album. This is an album that embraces the past, while certainly giving us some hope for the future too. Let's hope that Navarone has the opportunity to stick around for quite some time. They've certainly earned it with this release.
