A few years ago, Chris Turpin was at death’s door. Having suffered a heart attack, he looked inside and decided he wasn’t ready yet, but he took influence from what he saw and decided to use his new lease of life to start a new metal project. Roping in several friends from his hometown in Edinburgh, It took less than a year for Drowned Ten to release their first album, Stand.
From the off, you can see that these guys love the old school sound of heavy metal. They deliver thick, Sabbath-esque riffs while Turpin’s clean vocals sound very reminiscent of early Ozzy Osbourne. However, it’s pretty clear that they’re not content to just be another group of middle-aged men playing classic metal to small crowds of other older men. Instead, they’ve taken on the heavy grooves of 90s giants such as mid-era Pantera, complemented by Turpin’s occasional doom-laden growling, in order to create something that appeals to multiple generations while still sounding somewhat new. “All Bets Are Off”, as one of the album’s highlights, is a mid-paced slog, showing just how heavy you can be without having to play with break-neck aggression and blastbeats around every corner.
The main drawbacks of this album are in the production and the fact that Drowned Ten’s consistency acts as both a blessing and a curse. In terms of the production, the drums of Rogerio Calil Dos Reis feel oddly mixed and the cymbals seem to drown out other parts of the music at times. While the fuzzy guitars complement the sound that the band are going for, Aaron Rankin’s bass feels drowned out by the cacophony of noise surrounding it. And while it is hard to fault the consistency of this album, it becomes its own downfall at times due to the fact that Stand rarely shows Drowned Ten stepping out of their comfort zone. Aside from a few unexpected turns (such as the shrieks of the title track or the occasional sudden shift in pace), the music seems very content to sit in a mid-paced jog and rarely feels like it wants to stretch its legs and shake up the progression a little bit.
For a first album, though, Drowned Ten show that old dogs can learn new tricks, especially when given a new lease of life. Chris Turpin seems reborn on this album and with a second effort already in the works, expect to see more soon.
Support the band on Facebook.
The main drawbacks of this album are in the production and the fact that Drowned Ten’s consistency acts as both a blessing and a curse. In terms of the production, the drums of Rogerio Calil Dos Reis feel oddly mixed and the cymbals seem to drown out other parts of the music at times. While the fuzzy guitars complement the sound that the band are going for, Aaron Rankin’s bass feels drowned out by the cacophony of noise surrounding it. And while it is hard to fault the consistency of this album, it becomes its own downfall at times due to the fact that Stand rarely shows Drowned Ten stepping out of their comfort zone. Aside from a few unexpected turns (such as the shrieks of the title track or the occasional sudden shift in pace), the music seems very content to sit in a mid-paced jog and rarely feels like it wants to stretch its legs and shake up the progression a little bit.
For a first album, though, Drowned Ten show that old dogs can learn new tricks, especially when given a new lease of life. Chris Turpin seems reborn on this album and with a second effort already in the works, expect to see more soon.
Support the band on Facebook.