KAMCHATKA - Long Road Made Of Gold
June 17, 2015, 8 years ago
(Despotz)
Kamchatka’s Long Road Made Of Gold is a bonafide winner! The Swedish power trio’s sixth full-length release is where retro-inspired blues-rock and vintage rock meets vibrant modern/stoner rock. It’s easy to tell that Kamchatka, consisting of guitarist/vocalist Thomas “Juneor” Andersson, drummer Tobias Strandvik and bassist/keyboardist Per Wiberg (ex-Opeth), proudly wear its influences on its sleeve.
From the rockabilly-infused banjo shredding intro of CD-opener, “Take Me Back Home”, to the insanely catchy and chantable chorus of “Get Your Game On”, to the ZZ Top-inspired guitar segment during “Made Of Gold,” to the Robin Trower-ish opening lead guitar melody of “Long Road”, Kamchatka covers all the bases. “Rain”, with its slow, calculated bluesy swagger is a welcomed segment at the midway point of the album. Throughout the ten electrified tracks, Andersson’s raspy croon is splendidly reminiscent of Paul Rodgers (Bad Company, The Firm) and Glenn Hughes (ex-Deep Purple, California Breed), while borrowing a page from soulful blues guitar maestros such as Jimi Hendrix, Trower and Billy Gibbons. Kamchatka’s last album, The Search Goes On (which I gave it an 8.5 on this very site), fared very well, but Long Road Made Of Gold exponentially exceeds it. Well done!
