Groan - The Divine Right Of Kings (2012) (Full Album)

• Report rights infringement
• published: 24 Oct 2016
• views: 2909

Groan’s second full-length, The Divine Right of Kings barely gives you a second to think before it gets its hooks in you. The album also marks their first outing on Soulseller Records. Opening with an immediate rush of three songs that run one into the next, the momentum comes on quick and speaks for itself. Opener “Weeping Jesus” aligns the UK four-piece to both ‘70s and ‘90s-style doom ‘n’ roll quirk, and the ensuing “Sacrificial Virgins” sets the tone for much of the quality songwriting to follow, hooky choruses delivered with lighthearted arrogance by Andreas “Mazzereth” Maslen. From there, West taps his snare and they launch full-speed into “Magic Man,” one of The Divine Right of Kings’ best and most swaggering cuts, but more than that, it’s how much the mentality of the above defines the course of the album that stands Groan out from their peers. There are bands who would say the above and offer some ironic pose-out behind it. Hearing Groan as they present themselves on their second album, I totally believe they listen to Foghat. While drunk. Possibly with their shirts off, weather permitting. It’s the ability to skirt the line between tongue-in-cheek chicanery and sincere appreciation for classic heavy rock, classic heavy metal and modern doom and stoner riffing that serves as the difference between Groan and any ironic shitbag act you’d want to put next to them. Groan means it. The Divine Right of Kings touches almost immediately on British horror cinema atmospheres in the spoken lyrics of “Weeping Jesus,” which has doomed plod behind it but still keeps a relatively accessible pace musically, and “Sacrificial Virgins” is as much about the up and down nod of its riff as it is the titular virgins, Jones and West proving a formidable rhythm section quickly while they underscore the perfectly-paced groove. Mazzereth urges the listener to “get down” and “feel the doom”. Through these three tracks – which take only about 10 of the album’s total 39 minutes – Groan barely give the listener time to catch their breath or process what they’re hearing, such is the demented ADD mentality of them. Emerging on the other side of “Sacrificial Virgins,” one almost remembers the chorus in spite of the song, its start-stop cadence reminiscent of Cathedral at their most unabashedly rocking. In comparison, “Dissolution” is infinitely more doomed. The tempo is cut to a slower groove, and the atmosphere is darker in the guitar, a semi-choral opening giving the march some melodic context in the intro, though by the chorus, it’s Mazzereth who seems to be all over it, unwilling to relinquish some of the energy that “Magic Man” pushed forward. He’s mixed high and echoing, but that only adds to the classic metal vibe of the track, which is maintained despite a modern-sounding production, handled by the band themselves with a mastering job by West. Still, as the chorus comes back in the final slowdown Mazzereth moves further back in the mix to let the chants through, announcing that “our god is dead,” and while it’s clear the band are aware of their methods and the atmospheres they’re trying to concoct, it’s also a lot of fun to listen, that slowdown only serving to highlight the point that you never quite know where Groan are headed until they get there. “The Divine Right of Kings” earns its place as the closer and as the title-track, but more than that, it offers a foray no less bold than any of the band’s others into territory they’ve not yet explored. Their promise was already considerable, so to mark it as such would be redundant, but The Divine Right of Kings affirms Groan’s ability to harness a multi-faceted songwriting style while working in a variety of themes and maintaining a bullshit-free humor and a festive complete-album flow. Not bad for a band’s second record. Or sixth. One gets the sense in listening that there are still facets of what they want to be that Groan are exploring – their production methods, their blend of styles, etc. If The Divine Right of Kings is to prove one conquest en route to the next, however, I think that’d be just fine for all parties involved, if not their livers. It’s an easy record to be excited about and I can’t think of a reason not to be. Recommended. Review taken from The Obelisk http://theobelisk.net/obelisk/2012/09/28/groan-the-divine-right-of-kings-review/ 1. Weeping Jesus 2. Sacrificial Virgins 3. Magic Man 4. Dissolution 5. Atomic Prophets 6. Gods of Fire 7. How Black Was Our Sabbath? 8. Let's All Have a Pint at The Crooked Cock 9. Black Death 10. The Divine Right of Kings https://groan.bandcamp.com/album/the-divine-right-of-kings https://www.facebook.com/groanuk http://soulsellerrecords.aisamerch.com/item/40380