As every student of hard rock and heavy metal knows, few things are more inherently exhilarating than the sound of vintage DEEP PURPLE or URIAH HEEP at full pelt. Massive riffs, mutli-octave vocal athletics and, most importantly, the otherworldly rush of an overdriven Hammond organ — this, my friends, is the rock ‘n’ roll motherlode. Listen to “Highway Star” or “Easy Livin'” at full whack (again, presumably) and you will know the meaning of joy.
TIMECHILD are undoubtedly disciples of Jon Lord and Ken Hensley, not to mention Ritchie Blackmore and Mick Box, and their debut album makes no apologies for its proud and purposeful debt to the glory days of both the aforementioned bands. But while there are plenty of bands out there with the intent to emulate the greats, this Danish quartet have actually pulled it off. It certainly helps that vocalist Anders Folden Brink has a fantastic voice with its own strong identity, but TIMECHILD have nailed the vibe and verve of the old school with such panache here that it probably wouldn’t matter if he sang like Cronos.
From the spiraling organ motif of the opening title track to the epic bluster of “The Bite Of Frost”, “And Yet It Moves” sounds both classic and contemporary, with guitar tones that simply didn’t exist 50 years ago, but all the exquisite vocal harmonies, outrageous keyboard solos and turbocharged mutant blues riffs that changed the game first time around. Fuzzily proggy when they feel like it, TIMECHILD dip in and out of psychedelic waters on the anthemic “This Too Will Pass”, dabble in a more ’80s metal vibe for “Haze Of The Dawn”, shuffle along like bona fide doom miscreants on “Where I Now Belong” and conjure a wonderfully over-the-top power ballad with the most unlikely of titles (“Shrapnel”) and a heart-wrenching, crestfallen lead break to cherish. And yes, they frequently click into thunderous, ’70s-style proto-metal mode, but they do it with such intensity and craftsmanship that it’s hard to think of another band that have delivered these particular goods in several decades.
Not just one for old bastards like me: “And Yet It Moves” skillfully taps into the essence of hard rock’s greatest architects and wrings a few drops of fresh inspiration from their lofty achievements, all while demonstrating some serious songwriting chops and a whole heap of gritty charm. TIMECHILD are expert time travelers. Why not thumb a lift?
