Arcane Saints
In The Shade Of The Juniper
Independent
Release Date: Out Now
Review by Dave Griffiths
Over the past few years an Australian band has been working hard, gurgling away just under the surface but solidly impressing anybody that has been lucky enough to come across them. That band is Arcane Saints!
Hailing from Melbourne, Arcane Saints have needed no so-called reality music show to launch them. No, they have done it the old-fashioned way through blood, sweat and tears. Big Day Out 2014 seemed to kick start everything for them, anyone who saw them that day seemed to enjoy them a lot more than they did the mighty Pearl Jam, and then they followed that up with one of the albums of the year – Turning Tide (go check it out if you haven’t already heard it.)
Now comes Arcane Saints latest offering – a six track EP by the name of In The Shade Of The Juniper. The good news is that all the hard work that Arcane Saints have been putting in between albums has certainly paid off because once again they have delivered a beauty of an album, an album that shows why these guys are one of the best bands in Australia at the moment.
In The Shade Of The Juniper kicks off with absolute brilliance, a track called Juniper that is an absolute sensation. IF you listen really, really carefully you can easily hear that lead vocalist, Michael John, calling upon the vocal styling of an early Ozzy Osbourne. That in itself is impressive but then Juniper lifts to a whole new level as it manages to mix some good old-fashioned hard rock with some ingenious guttural growls.
The brilliance continues with Fools Gold a track that is so perfect that it is has to be heard to be believed. It feels (and sounds) like everything comes together perfectly for Arcane Saints on this track. It has an eerie natural feel, a welcome relief in this time of over-produced music. Its raw emotion and passion easily make this one of the best rock tracks that is likely to surface this year.
The third track on the album is Streetlights & Symphonies, a track that hints on some of the earlier stuff from The Butterfly Effect as it mixes melody, harmony and screams together in a way that really infuses the passion that brings In The Shade Of The Juniper to life and makes it an album that you want to hear over and over. Faith Of The Faithless is another amazing track that shows that these gifted musicians are also quality song and lyric writers. This track is proof enough that Arcane Saints are a well-rounded band that have a big, big future ahead of them.
In The Shade Of The Juniper then slows down a little and delivers a beautiful ballad in the form of Cellophane Eyes. Now sometimes when a rock band go for the big ballad it is a bit of a letdown but that isn’t the case here because Cellophane Eyes is never in danger of becoming cheesy and instead seems to be made even better by the classical instruments and female vocals in the background. The album closes with the manically paced See You In The Summertime, a track that I am taking as an invite to see Arcane Saints perform somewhere this summer.
In The Shade Of The Juniper is a stunning follow up to the brilliant Turning Tide and once again shows why Arcane Saints are going to be the next band to put Aussie rock on everybody’s lips overseas.
