Psychedelic music has had a massive resurgence in the past couple of years, with many a band riding the wave.
Despite being classified as a psych band, Greenthief are far from the modern take of reverb flooded, droning songs plaguing what used to be an incredibly innovative area of music. Instead, the trio’s debut album is heavily influenced by 90s grunge and hard rock.
Take ‘Messiah’ for example, a rock anthem against religious oppression and a cry for the unity of mankind. The themes sure are akin to psychedelic expectations, but musically, only a sniff of the genre is heard in the intro and outro.
There are some pretty steep contours across this debut, with the band favouring the quiet intro/sudden heavy guitar drop combo. In fact, touches of Muse are peppered throughout the record, especially on standout track ‘Epidemic’.
The endless jam songs synonymous with psychedelia apparently have no stock with Greenthief. The band’s songwriting shows a high level of craftsmanship and a strong idea of how to build audiences expectations with peaks and troughs. Apparently their stated aim was to create an album that worked as a whole instead of a jumbled collection of singles, which also shows a certain sophistication not always found on a debut.
While Greenthief are very good at writing music, it’s worth noting that there’s an absence of standout hooks in their songs. However, Voyage as a whole is an impressive genre-shift for the band, and a record that fans of hard rock will get a kick out of.
Listen to Epidemic from Voyage here:
