After a whirlwind week of reviews that saw us hopping from death and doom to blackened thrash and AOR, what better way to round out the week than with a good ol’ fashioned slab of ’70s styled hard rock, courtesy of Dying Victims Productions at that? Despite forming way back in 2016, Visions of Tomorrow is my introduction to The Riven: A Stockholm-by-way of London outfit who describes their sound as “high flying power rock” (Kudos for originality!). Such a descriptor, especially in this day and age, had me envisioning a sort of ballsy hard rock/early metal/psych n’ prog hybrid, owing zero credit to any music created past the year ’79, and surprise, that’s exactly what we have here.
Of all the ’70s veterans whose influence arise within The Riven’s sound, perhaps no band’s mark is more significant than Thin Lizzy’s. Whether it be via twin guitar-driven rockers like “Set My Heart On Fire” or hard-nosed prehistoric metallic aggressors like “Crystals”, the riffs, solos, melodies, and arrangements that dominate this outing scream of Jailbreak era ingenuity. A true hard and heavy affair if there ever was one, the hard moments are strictly that, with some being more accessible than others (more on that in a bit), while the heavy moments channel the NWOBHM in its infancy circa ’79.
From the rollicking air guitar mania of “Killing Machine” and “Travelling Great Distance” to the back to back attack of high speed blitz-rockers “Seen It All” and the title track, The Riven showcases that if they wanted to make a full metal platter, they could, and they’d do a damn fine job at it. That said, there’s much more going on in The Riven’s musical stew to keep this album isolated to pure metal territory. As I mentioned earlier, some of these songs have a real accessible edge to them. Cuts like “Far Away From Home” and especially “On My Mind (Tonight)” boast a poppy hard rock sheen to them that could’ve very well landed them on Top 40 rotation half a century ago.
Adding further depth are the occasional psychedelic trip-out passages, sometimes saddled dead center of a hard n’ heavy rager, or a leftfield outlier like “En Dag Som Aldrig Förr”, which if you didn’t know better, you could very well confuse for a private press Swedish folk rocker circa ’73. As far as the band themselves go, it’s the gutsy, warm vocals of frontwoman Charlotta Ekebergh that stood out the most, and had me asking: Where have I heard that before? She sounds so familiar. Upon the closing “Follow You”, it hit like a ton of bricks: Ekebergh is a DEAD RINGER for Carly Simon. Ever wonder what Simon would sound like if she rocked and wasn’t lamenting over Mick Jagger? Crank up “Follow You” and thank me later.
For a completely blind listen, The Riven’s Visions of Tomorrow has me hooked in the best way possible. Admittedly, I’m a sucker for any band who puts in the effort to sonically replicate the sounds of the heavy ’70s, but The Riven definitely do so in a manner that’s worthy of your attention. Now I just have to go back in their catalog and see how this one stacks up to past efforts. I just hope I don’t get so vain that I bet I think their songs are about me…don’t I, don’t I?
7 out of 10
Label: Dying Victims Productions
Genre: Heavy Metal/Hard Rock
For fans of: Thin Lizzy, Freeways, Lucifer
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