The Resurrection Sorrow - Hour of the Wolf

The Resurrection Sorrow started out as a project formed by vocalist Alex Dementia (ex After Dark) and bassist/guitarist Alex Coelho (Tides Within, ex-Malstrom), they were soon joined by drummer Louie Gasparro (Supervillain, Murphy’s Law, Blitzspeer). They kept it as a three piece for a few months before Zak Gross as lead guitarist, his ability as a great guitar player soon made Coelho focus on playing bass. In January of 2009 they teamed up with NYC engineer Joe Hogan who has worked with the likes of Nebula and The Atomic Bitchwax and began work on what would become "Hour Of The Wolf". I went into the review for this album totally fresh meaning not really knowing what to expect. What i got was a balls out hard rock album that is not original at all but covers a wide spectrum of influences or it seems that way. The first band i thought of when hearing the opening two tracks "Resurrect the Sorrow" and "Unholy Divine" is Corrosion Of Conformity" mainly due to Alex Dementia's striking similarity to Peeper Keenan but there is many other bands that spring to mind. The sounds of Kyuss, White Zombie, Crowbar, Black Label Society, High On Fire and even Danzig all get thrown into the Resurrection Sorrow's melting pot with pleasing results. The band has some dirty, sometimes muddy riffs with its fair share of darkness attached but there is also a strong commercial appeal to some of their songs that wouldn't sound out of place on some mainstream rock radio stations. Its not too easy to take what is basically "stoner metal" and make it assessable but for the most part, The Resurrection Sorrow have done just that.
There is some great tracks on "Hour Of The Wolf" with nothing that would be considered filler material. The opening track "Resurrect The Sorrow" is a fantastic swampy swaggering metal thump-er with a great chunky guitar tone from Zak Gross. Once the vocals come in however, the song takes on a different feeling all together however. "Unholy Divine" comes along next and by this stage you will be noticing the solid heavy hitting drum work from Louie Gasparro. "Shadow of a Vampire" is a monster leaping out of the speakers mixing doom with a early 80's bay area thrash metal sound. "Plague of the Dying Sun" is a slower more sludge filled number that sounds strangely like a radio friendly version of Crowbar but it works. "Bloodshot Eyes n’ Soul" is a punishing chunk of metal and "Supernatural Suffocation" sounds like Megadeth meets Down. "Undermyskin" has a hard time getting into any sort of groove but once it does, the result is a powerful one with great riffing. The other track on here is "Soul of the Soulless" which picks up the pace on the album at a time when its really needed. Some people will find this album a little too familiar with the influences being highlighted so clearly but the raw passion to which the music is played shines through on every tune. There is a couple of times where the band gets dangerously close to the commercial cliff-edge like in "Buried Dreams" and that will turn some people off the album which is a shame because this is still a mostly kick ass CD. Like it proudly states on their Myspace page "the wheel is not being reinvented here—it’s being reinforced" and bands like this are out to prove you can still rock out with some trace of commercial appeal. With a sound that stretches from classic 70's rock to grunge to hardcore to stoner metal to mainstream hard rock, they wont appeal to everyone but there is no doubt "Hour Of The Wolf" does rock. 8/10

http://www.myspace.com/resurrectionsorrow