Summer is right around the corner. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and for the first time in nearly 15 months, our overlords have granted us permission to interact with each other outside of a computer screen. That means it’s time to get back to all those pastimes we hold so dearly like barbecuing, frisbee, and driving around with the windows down and volume up. And my goodness did Riot singer Todd Michael Hall and Metal Church guitarist Kurdt Vanderhoof just treat us with the perfect soundtrack for such a hot and happy season.
Despite both men being synonymous with old school US steel, Sonic Healing sees Hall and Vanderhoof dialing it back a notch to the glory daze of the late 1970s. It was a simpler time when hair was long, jeans were tight, and guitars were cranked to 11. Disco may have ruled the airwaves, but you wouldn’t know it by the stadium sized audiences being drawn by Ted Nugent, Aerosmith, and Foghat. That’s right kids. Before they became a staple at your annual county fair, Foghat were a stadium band. Hall and Vanderhoof remember. It shows throughout Sonic Healing.
The album opens with a high energy rocker, “Overdrive”. Not to be confused with the Riot song of the same name, it ironically channels much of the spirit of Guy Speranza era Riot, with a Nugent flavor to the riffs. The “Full Bluntal Nugity” continues with the following track, “Let Loose Tonight”. If you hadn’t told me this was Hall and Vanderhoof, I would’ve thought this was Nugent and Derek St. Holmes circa 1977. The riffs rock harder than a calculus final exam, while Hall belts out lighthearted lyrics in a powerful upper register. The icing on the cake is a convincing retro production. Music like this needs room to breathe. It just can’t do so in today’s compressed no man’s land.
Throughout the rest of Sonic Healing, Hall and Vanderhoof explore the diverse styles that made 70s hard rock so memorable. “Running After You” is an impeccable guitar driven AOR ballad that wouldn’t sound out of place on the first Survivor album. The gutsy sleaze of “Love Rain Down” boasts a riff straight out of the Joe Perry playbook. “Like No Other” is a straightforward headbanger reminiscent of Stained Class era Judas Priest. The title track showcases a funky bassline and equally funky vocal performance from Hall that channels the legendary Glenn Hughes. Other artists whose mark are heard on this album include Led Zeppelin, Cheap Trick, and April Wine, among others.
The best part of Sonic Healing is that it doesn’t merely sound like two old schoolers trying to replicate the sounds of their youth. It’s a damn convincing slab of all killer, no filler hard rock which stands not only as a tribute to the times, but a spiritual continuation of such. As we dive head first into the blistering heat of the summer sun, I will gladly blast Sonic Healing with the windows down and volume up. It’d be criminal to do anything less.
10 out of 10
Label: Rat Pak Records
Genre: Hard Rock
For fans of: Ted Nugent, Aerosmith, Riot