Review Summary: Don't f**k with the Truck indeed.
In the 2000s there began to appear more and more bands that were heavily influenced by the 70s rock, such as
Wolfmother,
Rival Sons,
The Temperance Movement and others. Naturally, each of these bands headed in the direction of personal preferences, and so some of them continue the traditions of blues rock, some stick to hard rock, and some pick up the torch of the
Rolling Stones. The Canadians from Monster Truck can also be qualified as a part of this fine community. Having released two solid EPs, they traveled a lot all around their home country, supporting the recordings and gaining enough recognition, when they made a decision to work on a full-fledged studio album. And that’s how we get to
Furiosity, their debut released in 2013.
The recipe for the Monster Truck sound is deceptively simple. Take a couple of pounds of a classic and high-quality hard rock band, say,
Deep Purple. Then remove the layer of not always interesting (and sometimes altogether unnecessary) musical excesses present occasionally in the 70s, but do not throw it away – just put it aside, as we will need it later. Sprinkle the prepared product with some retrospective on the music of times past:
Rage Against the Machine would do nicely, specifically we are interested in the big riffs by Tom Morello (although, a few semi-political themes could be useful too). A pinch of Southern rock should not be out of place here;
Lynyrd Skynyrd is fine. Put everything through a grinder, mixing the bulk with some of the excesses we cut off earlier. And voila! In the end we get a kind of Deep Purple on steroids, with crushing guitars and loud vocals, but without any sort of drawn-out tracks, allowing us to concentrate on the main thing - pure and unadulterated hard rock that most of the time fits in containers of approximately three minutes.
Literally from the first seconds of
Old Train, which is the opening track, and its chugging riff, it becomes clear that the band isn’t joking around and intends to fully live up to its name. The sweet and heavy guitars of Jeremy Widerman paired with the commanding vocals of Jon Harvey take you by the throat and do not let go until the very end of
Furiosity, managing to maintain their integrity for the whole duration of the LP. All the fury and rock Monster Truck infused their songs with will stay with you from the very beginning to the spectacular ending. Only occasionally do the Canadians take an off-road from their hard rock highway, letting our necks rest (or at least reducing the load on them), with their bluesy detour to the epic
For the Sun and an interesting, arena-ready stop at
My Love Is True. Also of note is a small trip into pure heavy metal, represented on the album by
The Giant, accompanied with the prerequisite fantasy lyrics.
If we need to mention any shortcomings (do we?) of
Furiosity, then this role will be fulfilled by the lack of new ideas or any kind of experimentation. On the other hand, the lively Canadians never declared such intentions. Their goal is simple – to rock hard for those who missed it. Moreover, if you are looking for new ideas, unusual chord progressions, or odd time signatures, there are many other bands which specialize in just that, so there’s no need to bark up the wrong tree. This is the band for people who appreciate hard and energetic rock ‘n’ roll.
In the end, it can be easily stated that
Furiosity deserves the full attention of genre devotees, as it follows all the classic rules. And if you are not one, give it a try – you might accidentally like it.
