Review: 20 Watt Tombstone ‘The Chosen Few’
There are not many artists I will write this about at the start of an album review, but 20 Watt Tombstone are one of those bands that really should be more well-known across the globe. They are quite frankly, bloody brilliant at what they do. They have an abundance of killer guitar tones and head-banging rhythms that are dispersed equally across their songs, and more people should know about them and appreciate their music.
For those unaware of the band, Tom Jordan, guitar and vocals and Mitch Ostrowski, drums and vocals, hail from Wasau, Wisconsin, and they fuse the sounds of ZZ Top and Kyuss and blend it together with a bit of Black Flag punk attitude. They have created a sound that embraces heavy distortion, stoner rock and death blues to produce bouncy rhythms and fuzz fuelled songs. Like the barnstorming opening track Prophet Man which seems to be poking fun at the plethora of American TV evangelists, and they follow this up with the delicious album title track The Chosen Few, which has a slow start before exploding into life with a catchy riff and hypnotic drum sound.
This latest offering has seven tracks on it, and after several listens, I can’t name a favourite as they are all as equally mesmerising as each other, but the heavy blues intro of Bomb The Saved The Day really captured my imagination. The words are simple and repetitive, the hallmarks of lots of great songs over the years, but I’ll never tire of hearing it. They follow this up with Black Top Sorrow which has that slide guitar sound running throughout and then towards the end, it cranks up a few notches with an intense riff.
a sound that embraces heavy distortion, stoner rock and death blues to produce bouncy rhythms and fuzz fuelled songs…
Now, I like a cover version as much as the next person, but the only let down for me is that they have two covers on a seven-track album as I’d prefer to hear more of their original content. That’s not to say that their versions of Chris Stapleton’s Midnight Train To Memphis and ZZ Top’s Just Got Paid are bad, as the opposite is in fact true, both are wonderfully executed.
It is however reassuring they’ve ended the album with an original song, Magnolia, and like the rest, it’s a foot-tapping, head-banging monster with its barrage of riffs, crashing cymbals and pulsing beats. It encapsulates the band superbly as they give the thrill of rock ‘n’ roll with a metal twist, and in my humble opinion, that should be celebrated by the masses.
Label: Independent
Band Links: Official | Facebook | Bandcamp | Spotify | Twitter | Instagram
Scribed by: Matthew Williams
