Like a lot of people, the guys in Rival Sons had a lot of extra time on their hands during the lockdowns of 2020. For a band that had been touring extensively since releasing Feral Roots in January 2019, the pandemic offered a chance to recharge and of course, ample time to write new songs. When it was time to record, the band found that they had more than an album’s worth of songs and decided to break it up into a two-part project. The first album, Darkfighter, features heavier, more ominous songs, while Lightbringer, which will come out later this year, will have a more optimistic tone.
Since the release of Before the Fire in 2009, Rival Sons has consistently released great blues-based hard rock. But over time, the band has grown beyond its Sabbath and Zep-on-steroids sound. While those influences remain, over the last few albums the Long Beach rockers have refined a sound that is distinctly their own.
Darkfighter is the heaviest Rival Sons album yet. Scott Holiday’s guitar packs a punch, particularly when synced with Mike Miley’s pounding drums. But even so, Darkfighter incorporates more acoustic guitar than ever before, often used to flesh out the sound or in small doses to bridge two heavy sections of a song.
The swirling organ of “Mirrors” starts the album by teasing a relaxing pastoral song, but then loud drums and guitars abruptly take over. Jay Buchanan’s voice is an impressive mix of power and soul as he belts a prayer over the crunching rhythm. “Take my eyes and open them for good; help them to see the things that they should,” he sings. The song then jarringly shifts to gentle acoustic strumming before the loud instruments jump back in. Loud/soft dynamics like this, though never really a Rival Sons staple, are used often in Darkfighter.
In the fatalistic “Nobody Wants to Die,” Buchanan sings of existential dread, the inevitability of fate, and coming to a realization that life is fleeting, topics likely inspired by the pandemic. “Ain’t nothing gonna save you, but whatever you do, it’s coming after you,” Buchanan sings. The song is an alchemy of several different styles, with punk rock choruses built around furious power chords and verses filled with twangy country licks and slide guitars.
“Bird in the Hand” is the closest the album comes to the standard blues rock song that used to be the Rival Sons formula. Buchanan uses the imagery of baptism to sing about finding redemption. “When you think there’s nowhere left for you to go, that’s when you cling tight to the devil you know,” he sings over a crunchy blues shuffle. “Let’s go down to the river, where the water runs still and deep; scatter the ashes of the mess I used to be.”
Darkfighter’s heaviest track is its best song, the explosive “Guillotine.” The dynamic song repeatedly shifts in tempo and intensity. Verses shift from a propulsive thumping rhythm to a slow head-banger. The choruses start soft, with Buchanan crooning while playing an acoustic guitar, then inject power as Buchanan screams over loud, distorted riffing. Those dynamic shifts display the band’s range, with Holiday’s tone shifting from warm to menacing and Buchanan’s vocals alternating between a soulful croon and an angry howl. “Am I closer to heaven or closer to hell? The deeper I go, it’s harder to tell,” Buchanan sings in both sections of the chorus. In the soft section, the question sounds like introspection, while in the heavy section, it sounds like a warning.
At eight songs and forty minutes, Darkfighter is a lean hard rock album that condenses what Rival Sons does well into a brief attack. Those forty minutes are packed with Holiday’s catchy guitar riffs, Miley’s heavy drumming, and Buchanan’s voice which can be beautiful or fierce, sometimes simultaneously. It’s a Rival Sons album, and no matter what else changes in the music, those elements have been constant.
