Band: Freedom Hawk
Album: Freedom Hawk
Label: Meteor City
Year: 2009
Rating: 59%
Tracklist:
Side 1
1. On The Other Side
2. Universal
3. My Road
4. Ten Years
Side 2
5. Bad Man
6. Jaywalker
7. Hollow Man
Since All That’s Heavy was kind enough to send me Freedom Hawk’s self-titled sophomore effort for free, I feel kind of bad about not liking it as much as I had hoped. I mean, I like the name, and that art looked cool and all… but the music inside was just not all that good. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not bad. I wanted to like this band. And I do… I guess. It’s just that there isn’t anything here that hasn’t been done better dozens of times before in the last four decades.
I don’t have a problem with derivative music. Stoner rock is built upon trying to explore the template laid out by the original forefathers of heavy. I praised Elder’s spot-on Sleep impression on their debut to high heaven, and let’s face it, Sleep’s Holy Mountain was basically Master Of Reality without Iommi’s renaissance faire interludes and flute-and-butterfly dances. It's difficult for me to rationalize praising one band for tapping into the spirit of the godfathers of Ur-rock and then crucify these guys for sounding like everyone else - It's a fine line between heavy riffs and electric mud. But if you’re going to basically copy the flying shit out of your favourite bands, you’d better either bring some solid songs to the table, or at least some riffs that will flatten mountains, otherwise no one is going to care. I’m sure Freedom Hawk are capable of rocking the hell out of skuzzy dive bars on a nightly basis, but until they come up with something that I’m going to remember after the record is done playing, I won’t be droppin’ any more of my cash than the 3 bucks I paid to get in, kemosabe.
The record starts off strong. “On The Other Side” and “Universal” both lock into a vicious groove propelled by fuzzed out riffing and driving bass that Dave Brock and Lemmy would approve of. The quartet is tight and they have chops to burn. But really, that’s not enough to make you stand out from all the other hard rock bands with myspace pages, and what becomes apparent even after only a couple minutes of this is that Freedom Hawk basically only have one gear. Again, not really a problem if some good old-fashioned rock 'n' roll is all you’re looking for. But if you’re looking for a record you’ll spin over and over again, this one will leave you cold. The record is short, clocking in at just a shade under 34 minutes and only carrying a trim 7-song tracklist, but it still feels like Freedom Hawk have run out of things to say before the thing is half done.
A standout track is “Bad Man”, and for all the wrong reasons. The lyrics are clichéd hard rock chest-thumpery, the performances leaden as opposed to crushing, and the vocal performance is just bad. I mean, Ozzy was a terrible singer too, but his strained yelp was appropriate because it fit the ominous sound of Sabbath's music. The singing on this song is actually painful. And it goes on far too long; at over 6 minutes it's the longest cut on the album. The rest of the album is better than that, and “Hollow Caverns” in particular provides some stylistic departure by splicing a few particles of Monster Magnet’s dark matter into the interstellar engine exhaust the track kicks up.
You could play the “Who does this sound like” drinking game all day to describe Freedom Hawk, but it really doesn’t matter all that much. If they tried tinkering with their formula a little more, and the singer sang in a way more suited to the band's sound and his own natural range, Freedom Hawk could be much more interesting. As it is, they’re just taking you where you’ve already been before. They can play their instruments and string a few riffs together, but without any new ideas on how to re-arrange the pieces, there’s nothing to keep the listener coming back. Here’s hoping that next time out they take a few chances. Freedom Hawk might have a good record in them yet.
This way to Freedom Hawk's MySpace
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