Son Of MAN have come a long way from their origins as a celebration of MAN – the Welsh psychedelic rock wizards – to a full fledged band in their own right and ‘State Of Dystopia’ is a stunning album.
Oddly enough, it opens with a number that MAN couldn’t complete themselves but Deke Leonard brought ‘Conscience’ to the band hoping they could complete it and complete it they have. A straight out rock blast with harmonies that are very reminiscent of MAN themselves and a terrific driving funk that clears the sinuses. George Jones & Glenn Quinn twin guitar lead leave no room for breath. It is a monster of an opening track.
That leads into ‘Feeding Time’ which brings in touches of an even heavier riff coupled with much more melodic vocals from Richie Galloni – there is a touch of Hawkwind in the changes of pace and direction but the song has a hypnotic buzz to the riff and the ‘treatments’ add to it rather than disturbing your involvement in the track.
Son Of MAN are very definitely proving to be a band standing up for them selves and when they throw the power away in a song like ‘Bring Out The Best Of Me’ they manage to make a swinging and love-happy sound that could have come out of any decade from the sixties onward – another side of the band but a really pleasant one.
Every track demonstrates something else about the band, much like the MAN band they started off celebrating, they are multi-talented and seem to create a lot of different styles that are still unmistakably Son Of MAN.
One of my favourite albums this year, I’ll be digging this for ages.
