Words by Jimmy Glinster
Solar Haze bring us some Southern Californian Rock, all three songs of it, on an EP titled The Solar Age. I’m meant to write about 600 words for these things, but with a third of the tracks of a standard release, I think I‘ll have a few spare words left over.
The title track The Solar Age opens with an all too familiar sounding southern rock riff, and I’m already feeling that I’ve heard this EP a thousand times before, under a few hundred different band names. Good track, but nothing special in the realm of southern/stoner/desert/whatever the fuck they call this way over saturated genre now.
One thing that does stand out as a little different is the guitar tone, which is not overly fuzzed out like most bands of this style.
The next track Fortress Will Fall brings me back to reality though with possibly the worst double kick tone I have ever heard on a recent recording. I mean, throw Lars’ St Anger snare over the top of it, and you’d have the trash kit from hell. Who am I to comment on drum tones, though, I’m just a guitarist. Thankfully, a guitarist that’s happy to hear a rocking guitar solo in the middle of this track.
The final track Terror of the Deep is your token doom track complete with a cool as fuck phased out droning guitar riff. This one reminds me of something early Black Sabbath and is probably my pick of the three tracks due to its “not so standard” sound and structure. It even gets borderline heavy at the end and could quite possibly promote the odd bang of the head. Not before they put us to sleep with the sounds of the ocean and some classical guitar. Weird way to wrap up a banger of a song.
If Solar Haze wrote more tracks like the last track, I’d probably even consider buying an album of it. But we are just going to have to wait and see what the future brings for this Southern Californian three-piece.
