Formed in Switzerland in 2012 after an Asteroid fell in Neuchatel, Them Stones is a five piece band featuring two guitarists, a drummer, bassist and vocalist. Influenced by stoner and grunge, the band’s sound is an eclectic mix that draws from everything from blues to doom whilst maintaining a coherent thread that draws all those elements together over this impressive, thirteen-song cycle.
Opening with the tumultuous riffs of ‘intro’, Them Stones find their feet with the lengthy ‘temptation’, a near seven-minute piece that takes the dry-as-bones riffage of Kyuss and filters it through the heavier lens of the Melvins, with hints of early Soundgarden and Pearl Jam thrown in for good measure. Melodic, yet based around a riff so potent you get a contact high just from proximity, ‘temptation’ is one hell of an opening track and one that takes its influences and sends them spinning off in new directions marking the music out as both nostalgic and forward looking at the same time. ‘At my sight’ is a shorter piece which digs into the fractured alt-rock of early Foo Fighters and Pearl Jam, all chugging riffs and melodic vocals before ‘just a sin’ nods a head to the dark pop of latter day Soundgarden. Interestingly, although references abound, Them Stones mould the influences into strange new shapes, and the result is an album that continues to challenge the listener. The stoner vibe is back on the raw ‘diligence’ which tacks a garage rock riff to a spoken word lyric that drifts into Henry Rollins territory – articulate and yet minimalist at the same time. ‘Lucubration’ (which, our dictionary informs us, means ‘writing or study’) has a similar stoner vibe with the intro filtered s that the main riff sounds all the heavier when it comes sloping into view. A groovy number, ‘Lucubration’ is an album highlight and a good choice for a single with its taut groove and subtle harmonies.
The second half of the album arrives with the cracking surge of ‘not my friend’, a riff-heavy beast complete with gritty vocals and thunderous drums. Next up is the acoustic beauty of ‘sea of sorrow’ which is stripped down to acoustic guitar and vocal and is all the better for its naked elegance. A track that slowly builds, there is a strong Pearl Jam / Stone Temple Pilots vibe here which continues on the grungy ‘can’t change’ with both tracks proving to be rather more derivative than those found elsewhere on the record. Them Stones get back to their more stoner-infused roots on the fuzz-laden ‘what you deserve’, an album highlight that crackles with electricity. The rolling thunder of ‘close to black’ is another highlight with its gruelling bass line and spacious guitars bring Alice in Chains to mind whilst ‘interlude’ is a sombre, beautiful, acoustic instrumental awash with the sound of a howling storm. The album closes with the epic (nine-minute) ‘home’, another track that references Alice in Chains with its dark riffing and powerful vocals and it provides a suitably climactic conclusion to the album. A slow burning monster of a track, ‘home’ is arguably the band’s masterstroke and as it pushes the boundaries, slowly dissolving into a blazing, hard rock beast of a track, the listener gets ever more lost in the band’s hypnotic sound.
Overall this self-titled effort from Them Stones is impressive, but occasionally unfocused. At their best, the band draw upon their myriad influences to deliver some truly impressive alt rock grooves. However, at the other end of the scale, certain tracks are so closely aligned to bands such as Pearl Jam that you all but have to check if the songs are covers. ‘Sea of sorrow’ is a particular victim of this and so imbued is it in the tropes of Pearl Jam that long term fans of that band could be forgiven for thinking it was one of their songs. However, for the most part Them Stones have done a fantastic job of drawing the best elements of the alternative scene and combining them for their own purposes. Perhaps the album does not reinvent the wheel, but it does do a good job of refining it and it will be interesting to hear how the band refine their sound on album number two.
7/10
