[rating=3.50]
Do you miss 1970’s Rush? Have a hankering for Pearl Jam with distortion? If so, Comets on Fire’s debut Avatar may be exactly your thing.
Opening with a grinding guitar that would make Ten-era Pearl Jam fans swoon, Avatar quickly leaps into territory infrequently tread since Rush’s Caress of Steel. Replete with Doors-esque guitar work, rolling snare lines, and heavy bass lines, Avatar wreaks of hard rock the way it used to be, before it became – well, before Motley Crue and Poison had their way with it and before poseurs such as Limp Bizkit and Korn ruined what had been a heavily beautiful thing.
All that is not to say that Avatar is an album released 30 years past its time. Rather, Comets on Fire updates the grind of the ‘70s with clean production and melodic piano noodling putting it in a context both timeless and contemporary. All this is accomplished within a framework that would please Iron Butterfly. Avatar is a great way to keep listening to old-school “hard rock” without being accused of being out of touch with the music of today.
