Album Review: Woodhawk – Beyond The Sun

Slathered in rock and roll riffs and dealing with a case of wanderlust, Calgary’s stoner rock heroes Woodhawk have released their debut self released full length, Beyond The Sun, this nine track album follows on from their self titled debut EP that was released back in 2014. All the elements you’d expect to encounter on an album of this type are present and correct and it’s no surprise that Beyond The Sun contains a hefty science fiction influence, including A New Hope, a track dedicated to the rapidly expanding Star Wars franchise,

From the off Beyond The Sun is an album that sounds like the bastard offspring of Queens Of The Stone Age and Hawkwind, the title track kicks things off with a suitably hazy vibe before the album’s stand out track, The High Priest, moves things up a gear and with the exception of the brief instrumental, Foresee The Future, it pretty much stays there and steadily builds to the album’s epic finale, Chrononaut. Beyond The Sun is an album that veers between proto metal influences and alt rock, all the while delivered with the authentic feel of a band that exist primarily in an altered state.

Beyond The Sun is an album that contains equal parts proto metal, stoner rock and alt rock to an impressive effect, at it’s core this album is something of a throwback, although it’s one that has embraced contemporary influences that stop it from being a complete anachronism. Beyond The Sun is an album that will appeal to fans of stoner rock from across the decades, from the distant influences of seventies bands that pioneered the bass driven grooves of the genre, through to the more recent pioneers of intoxication such as Kyuss.

Beyond The Sun can be pre-ordered here and Woodhawk‘s Facebook page is here