Album review : THE END MACHINE – The Quantum Phase

Frontiers [Release date: 08.03.24]

Third album from George Lynch’s “new” band.

(Interesting to note that Lynch has “retired” the Lynch Mob band name, admitting that the play on his surname was always “problematic,” but is now “inexcusable” because of its racial undertones.)

Jeff Pilson and Steve Brown remain. Vocalist, Robert Mason has gone, replaced by Girish Pradhan, he of Girish and The Chronicles, one of Frontier’s rising stars.

The album title suggests a progression, but it’s not.

They’re cranking the machine way back. The song titles suggest it won’t be winning any Pulitzer Prizes anyway.

Pilson and Brown lay down a densely constructed, bass heavy bedrock, leaving plenty of room for Lynch to carve out thick cut riffs and razor wire solos.

He’s in free flow much of the time, churning out explosive guitar crunch, as the band deliver tough but buoyant melodies, thundering drums, and right on the nail vocals, from the first stuttering chords of the dark and passionate “Black Hole Extinction’ to the high speed hard rock of ‘Into The Blazing Sun’.

Less a protest song, more an indictment. ‘Silent Winter’, a “song about the bleak prospects for humanity if we keep on our current trajectory” is suitably framed by Lynch’s menacing axework, before the track launches into another blast of hard hitting hard rock.

‘Killer Of The Night’ is a peach of a melodic hard rock song, sounding like its been plucked from the best of Lynch’s storied past. It’s a fiery, blazing thing, stomping, riff heavy, with pummelling drums, much wailing from the backing vocals and a towering edifice of a hook.

The fiercely dramatic ‘Burning Man’ and the swaggeringly tough ‘Shattered Heart’ share the same DNA as bands like Tesla and Whitesnake, and indeed, Dokken, turning blues rock into a commercial proposition. There are two great vocal performances here from Pradham. He seems to have quickly outgrown his parent band limitations. We’ll hear more of him no doubt.

Elsewhere, among others, the unimaginatively titled ‘Hell Or High Water’ “borrows” bits from every great hard rock song that made it during the eighties. It’s all good though. It’s a fun ride, gaining an unstoppable momentum as it fuels up on each electrifying chorus.

Lynch’s clanging riffs and piercing guitar soloing are worth the admission price alone.

Three albums later, having apparently abandoned the limiting strictures of post nineties hard rock, this band seem liberated. ****

Review by Brian McGowan

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.
In 2023 he signed a recording deal with Sony in Canada and released a new single on 15 September.

Next session: Sunday 1 December

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Power Plays w/c 11 November 2024

ARCANE MOON Hello Sun (indie)
S8NT ELEKTRIC XTC (Long Branch Records)
ARCANA KINGS Here We Go (Curtain Call Records)
KLOGR face The Unknown (Zeta Factory)
BEYOND UNBROKEN Dance With The Dead (FiXT)
REVENGIN Decadent Feeling (Wormholedeath)

Featured Albums w/c 11 November 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Singer Songwriter)