After five years of existence, the American quartet launches its third full-length mainstream rock album that is still making people talk.
Heavy rock drawn from the same “zeppelinian” source that made it famous, can the ten songs of Starcatcher be called classic rock? From rock to recipe? From music to numbers? All of these answers are good.
The method is quite simple: the musicians rock their thunderous, primitive rock in the same room and renowned record producer Dave Cobb, responsible for the success of country star Chris Stapleton but also Brandi Carlile and Jason Isbell, in addition to having collaborated in the studio with Slash and Sammy Hagar (Van Halen), adds a few frills to it. But we keep the raw material, however imperfect it may be. What Jack White manages to do with many more nuances.
The three Kiszka brothers – high-pitched Josh, guitarist Jake, and drummer Danny Wagner – still shamelessly wear the “revivalist” hat. How would Led Zep sound today? they seem to be forever wondering.
Fate of the Faithful has the allure of stoner blues with a slow tempo, the intervention of the keyboards clearly evokes the work of John Paul Jones on the piece No Quarter. Waited All Your Life ticks the right boxes: acoustic guitar in a setting of power ballad at the triumphal end, apocalyptic guitar solo, arena rock in its most accurate illustration.
Meeting the Master looks like Zep’s Thank You in every way, Sacred the Thread spans the buffet brilliantly, Runway Blues acts as a psychedelic interlude with its 77 seconds in swampy waters.
It is not reckless to say that there is also a musical kinship with Rush, The Black Keys or Cream. The 42 minutes of Starcatcher are almost as effective as Anthem of the Peaceful Army, the group’s first album released in 2018, but certainly less accomplished than The Battle at the Garden’s Gate, the second album released in 2021.
This lack of varnish and this rock attitude captured at maximum volume, mixed in a catch-all of riffs à la Jimmy Page, makes Starcatcher an agreed record but which should not displease diehards. For originality, however, we will go back…