Earth To Grace (Earache Records) is the Lancastrian quintet Massive Wagons seventh album, following on from 2022s rather good, UK top ten hit Triggered. They have teamed up with new record producer Matt O’Grady (You Me At Six, Architects) this time round, their signature brand of humorous and catchy Classic Rock is very much intact but with tauter songwriting and slightly bigger, shinier choruses.
‘Sleep Forever’ and ‘Rabbit Hole’ start and finish the record with a bang. The former goes off like a rocket, serving up full fat riffs, pounding drums and solos galore with touches of Iron Maiden about it. The former is a snappy slice of Metallica flavoured metal, with Baz delivering rapid fire diatribes against mankind.
In between these are chunky rockers with sumptuous hooks and down to earth lyrics. “I’m not wishing I was back in the U S of A, cos I come from Morecambe where the skies are grey” Baz sings on ‘Free and Easy’ with its sweet hooks and foot tapping melody that will be lodged in my head for a while. ‘Missing on TV’ is trademark Wagons and is as catchy as velcro, with its hummable vocals lambasting opportunistic and self-serving politicians. In between its tales of a crazy cat lady and an irrepressible handyman, ‘Cool Like a Fox’ beams positivity to the tune of a dirty, Thunder like riff.
They have a knack for an anthemic rocker, with the crunchy, Rainbow like chords and emphatic chorus of ‘All We Got’ happily fitting this bill. ‘The Good Die Young’ is a tight, power pop ballad with a fist pumping, make the most of your life sentiment and Colin Doran from Hundred Reasons helping out on vocals. Bonus track ‘Punk At Heart’ is another cracker, an energetic foot stomper with a sod being sad and start living ethos – that, if I was being picky, I would put in instead of the polished but forgetful ‘Underdog’.
These chaps are beginning to resemble Clutch, in that they do not make bad albums and you will have a whale of time along the way.
Buy the album here:
https://earache.lnk.to/TheGoodDieYoung
9 / 10
THOMAS THROWER
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