Corsair - One Eyed Horse (2015) (Full Album)

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• published: 17 Aug 2016
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Charlottesville, Virginia’s Corsair is a band simply not of this time. They are really a band from the early 70s that discovered H.G. Wells’ Time Machine in a forgotten grotto and beamed into the modern era with knowledge of every quality hard rock band, every dual guitar team and every alchemical songwriting trick written about in the elder tomes. Their sound is hard-hitting, driving, riff-y and progressive, but a magical feel presents itself that puts them in a league of their own. The quartet’s second long-player One Eyed Horse is the guitar harmony brigade’s roughest ride through barren lands to date. The first moments of opener “Shadows from Breath” are all cool cascades of spring water, the smooth rush of guitarists Marie Landragin and Paul Sebring delaying, echoing and flickering in a dreamy Gilmour/Göttsching sexual mingle. It doesn’t take long for these melodies to shapeshift into astute harmonies which rock without going full-bore heavy, leaving the weight on the back of bassist Jordan Brunk’s deep, well-footed groove and new drummer Wade Warfield’s cracking snare. A mythical beast of distorted riffage emerges from Corasair’s cave lair; deadly and hungry enough to scare your pants off yonder while Brunk’s vocals herd your trousers back to basecamp in a clear, somber croon. His vocals ascend nicely in the chorus, and occasionally are doused in watery FX for a heady, tripped-out feel. Wade’s percussion crashes and pounds a bit harder in these segments, as Sebring and Landragin weave their lines together seamlessly. A shake of the rhythmic reigns at 4:10 sends the guitar work into a marauding attack of solo trades backed with a few bonebreaking volleys of snare fillage and jazzy tom/cymbal flux making for some well-concocted, yet tightly controlled madness. “Ghostlands” dives right into a regal, crown jewel riff that spreads twisted lead guitar marmalade atop of the gritty, bottom-weighted groove. If the first song came up from the valleys, this one is straight from the top of the mountain bringing down with it an avalanche of snow followed by a few lightning bolts and volcanic eruptions for good measure. Riffs come on fast and furious, switching tempo from mid-paced, doom-y rumbles to lance drawn, straight into the maelstrom charges built on 16 hooves of trail-ready low-end and tense drumming that will easily upset your carriage and kick your caboose. The solos/leads are consistently a highlight; tasteful and flashy all in one earshot with killer interplay and commentary from each band member. A shuffling snare beat, and stop/start riffs kick off “Brothers” with a dipping sort of heavy that feels like a waltz. Sebring’s voice caterwauls into a near scream. The riffs are some of the nastiest in the band’s canon, and the songwriting gives Warfield plenty of room to spread his wings across the battle-hardened fills, and toughened work in the pocket. Jordan provides plenty of heft, his groove pushing up beneath the harmonies and giving warmth to the fuzzy lead trade-offs that eventually join together like a pair of locked blades. There’s no shortage of emotion on this one, and it’s certainly a Corsair classic. Brunk leads in “Horn of the Luparii” with rapid fire, leaping bass prowess where you can hear the clarity of every note. Intersecting his comely crossroads of groove, distorted power chords hint at the climbing hard rock glory about to be given by divine hands. The harmonies sting with ascending, arcane power that shoves the band into an upbeat but rockin’ riff. That gorgeous interplay between the dueling guitarists casts a positive, effervescent swing to the chorus, where Wade dots every 6-string "I" with a precision roll or daring fill bristling with extra hits. The future is bright with untold musical riches so the old words read, as proven by an empirical, instrumental send-off where everyone in the band is observant, and adherent to what’s being played by their comrades. Solos fly, leads explode like bombs, Brunk is all drive and no rest and the drumming perfectly accentuates every change… Always a pleasure to hear these cats just take off and run the way they do. Corsair put this out in February 2015 but this record is completely timeless. The guitar work is intricate, progressive and effortlessly heavy without relying on down tuning. The melodies are complex but feel natural, like you've always known them. Weaving a majestic hard rock spell punctuated with metallic flourishes, this is an immense album. 1. Shadows From Breath 2. Ghostlands 3. One Eyed Horse 4. Royal Stride 5. Brothers 6. Horn of the Luparii 7. Sparrows Cragg 8. Coriolis Support Corsair by purchasing the album here ~ https://corsair.bandcamp.com/album/one-eyed-horse http://www.skykrakken.com/