Lee Speaks About Music… #9

Hail To The Sun – Loft

Introduction…

It’s been a couple of years since the head banging heavy rock metal band Loft released their stunning debut album Empires, and whilst the band have been busy gigging plenty of live shows promoting that album, mainly around their home town of Cornwall. I myself have been twiddling my thumbs waiting in great anticipation to see what they was gonna come up with next.

Well the wait is finally over and on the 3rd of June they released a 5 track EP entitled Hail To The Sun on Bandcamp as a digital download only. The 5 track EP has a playing time of 23 minutes 15 seconds and just like their previous album Empires the material is very strong, well written and purely rocks, and the wait was well worth it.

The band Loft consists of 5 young very talented musicians, and it’s good to see that over the 2 years they have been together the bands line up has not changed and that their songwriting and style is still very much consistent. Each band member is a unit of equal strength and all 5 of them add to the power, strength and drive that the band is pushing out and producing within the great music they are very much making.

Musicians & Credits…

The band Loft consists of the following line up:

Rob Summers – Vocals
Denn Leavy – Guitar.
Bob Barnes – Guitar.
Phil Rollason – Bass.
Tats McGee – Drums.

The 5 tracks on the EP were recorded and engineered by Bob Barnes & Josh Rowland. It was also mixed by Bob Barnes and mastered by Josh Rowland. The very tasty artwork was done by Jim Doe and is based around the first track on the EP. More about that in my detailed review which is up next.

The EP Review…

The EP gets off to a flying start with its power house heavy rocking opening track Icarus. The song starts off with a great guitar riff from both guitarists Denn & Bob, and is quickly followed by Tats drums and Phil’s bass giving it more strength. Then in comes Rob on the vocals adding even more power to the song with his great rock voice and he belts out the great words with ease.

Lyrically the song puts across a story that comes from ancient Greek Mythology about Icarus, who was the son of a craftsman known as Daedalus who made 2 sets of wings so he could teach his son how to fly. To glue the wings together he used wax and told his son not to fly too high or too low because the sun could melt the wax and the sea would dampen the feathers. Unfortunately Icarus forgot his father’s wise words and flew to high and closer to the sun, that resulting in the wings melting and he fell into the sea and drown.

Its a superb well written song that has plenty of adrenalin and raw power about it. Both the artwork and the album’s title “Hail to the sun” relate to this opening song and it really is a scorcher of a song.

More pace and power is injected into the next song on the EP entitled Black River. The song features very powerful hard hitting drums from Tats drum kit and he really sets the ultra fast pace of the song, especially on the verse sections. High power is coming from all the guitars and Robs voice and it has a great come down section around the 2:11 mark just past the half way point of the song, that features a lovely tone coming from Phil’s bass line and gets accompanied by some tasty lead guitar all bringing it back up to its boiling point, and this song really does kick ass.

The song’s lyrics pertain perhaps more to the dark and evil feel of it all, more than have any real meaning. If they do I cannot certainly make any head or tail out of them, but whatever it’s all about is well apt to the music and its another great rocking song.

Kraken is a superb piece of work and song that’s lyrical content is based around some giant sized mythical sea monster that is said to dwell off the coast of Norway and Greenland. The song opens up with some roaring howls and screams from the amplified feedback from the guitars FX and then unleashes its monster driven power. The song uses some great chord progression and shows some great diversity with its changes and has a really great lead solo break too.

It was a very hard decision for me to make in not giving this particular song the best track on the album award. It really is a superb song and a monster of one at that. It also leads directly into the next song which is the 4th track Revolutions which in many ways is like Kraken with its monster drive and is like all hell as broken loose in this war. This one does happen to be my personal fave on the album and it’s another song that features a great lead solo from the guitars and the bass also works superbly in the song too.

The EP is brought to an end with a brilliant song entitled Liar. Its very much one of those songs that has all the right elements about it, to make it an excellent song to use as a single release. It’s a very well put together song with it’s heavy riff to which the both guitars even double it up as it builds its way along. It also contains a great short burst of a lead solo too, and as with every song on this EP the band are giving it all. It ends it all off superbly.

Summary Of The EP…

There is no doubt in my mind that the band Loft have come up with another 5 superb well written songs for the EP Hail To The Sun. The material upon it is just as strong as what was on their previous album Empires to which the band even called that an EP rather than an album, as I would call it.

The fact is when I was their age, back in my day all albums were around the 40 minutes or less time slot, and has Empires contains 7 tracks over a playing time of just under 37 minutes, very much makes it an album and not an EP. Many of today’s bands have also switched back to the 40 minute album time slot which I personally prefer myself.

If you have not got the bands album Empires I would highly recommend you get it, because it really is a superb album and is a strong body of work just like this EP and comes with an excellent quality sound production. I also think the band show a lot more diversity on the album Empires with the material that’s upon it too.

Conclusion…

To sum up my review for the EP Hail To The Sun and the band Loft. I would say that there is no doubt what so ever, that the band have once again come up with the goods, and produced another solid body of work that does not in any way disappoint.

Regarding the band itself and the fact that they are an unsigned band in the way that they do not have a reputable record label or major contract record deal. It’s damn shame, because if this band would of came out in the 70’s there is no doubt in my mind that they would of been snapped up, just like the likes of Black Sabbath and Quartz who were from my home town of Birmingham.

In many ways the band Loft are very much like both of them bands I mentioned and many more too with their approach and style to heavy rock music. But they do have their own personal style and touch to it all. They are a fine talented bunch of guys that say everything about really great music with the songs they write and produce.

The standard of the high quality production that comes on these albums is even more greater than the quality of production both Black Sabbath and Quartz had on their albums back in the 70’s. Though to be fair recording technology has come on in leaps and bounds since those days. But never the less you are getting genuine high quality for as little or nothing here, and it’s well worthy of giving the guys a drink, even if it’s the price of one beer, for the hard work and sweat they have put into it all.

If your into rock or heavy rock music like myself, then there is no doubt this will appeal to you and it’s well worthy of adding to your record collection. Has a band personally for me, the band Loft speak highly and appeal to my taste 100%. In my own personal opinion they are as good as anybody out there who work in this genre of music and make great records.

My advice is get it…

Lee’s overall EP Score Rating 10/10.

Both Empires and Hail To The Sun are available @ Bandcamp and can be obtained on the following link: https://lofttheband.bandcamp.com/music