Independant (label)
15 April 2016 (released)
04 June 2016
Lithuanian rockers have a style and they're stickin' to it.
The duo of Michael Levin (guitar, vocals) and Alex Nikolaev (drums) have put out a tight, high-octane Maxi Single of grungy goodness. The four track offering comes in fast, hits hard and gets out. There is not a hint of lilting Indie sound and isn't that refreshing these days?
Album opener, 'Water Rider' offers the combo of stop-and-lock timing and overarching mid-range vocals that gave the Stone Temple Pilots a solid foundation back in the nineties. The guitar is rich, the choruses are thick. The drums pound and the bass nimbly threads it all together. It's a powerful track but it is taking a page right out of the STP playbook. A listener less familiar with the Pilots catalog would have a hard time telling them apart in a blind taste test.
'King & Queen', though still firmly entrenched in grunge's hard rock modalities, starts to feel more like their own voice. A lurking bass line leads you through the verse before being backed up by bulldozer guitars. Levin's vocals strike like a viper but are still catchy as hell. The track is blessed with crisp production that makes it jump right out at you. At the risk of throwing out a reference that few outside my country will get, Linchette Marcel conjure a sound close to '90s Canadian radio staples, I Mother Earth. If this record grabs you, I highly recommend you seek them out.
'Hurricane' is bouncy, riff heavy and a straight-up good time. No more explanation necessary. The final track, 'Off the Gain' is their most distinguished with Levin letting his personality really come out over a tension building groove. An evocative slide guitar solo closes out the all-too-short album.
Nostalgia acts aren't popular till they are. A few years ago, anyone copping Sabbath's sludgy stoner side would be scoffed at, today there's an entire genre thriving on it. The style cycles are inevitable and this grunge era stuff is primed for it's second coming. Should that be to your liking, Linchette Marcel are for you. They do that sound you crave so well.
