Longing for bands like Free, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Cream? Heavy Feather (SWE) gives you that late 60s and early 70s rock vibe that will bring you back in time yet still give you hope about the future in rock. It´s Retro rock filled with air and honesty.
Heavy Feather takes it back to the roots on their debut album Débris & Rubble. It is a raw, real and heavy riff-based rock. The band is influenced by the greats of the 70’s - such as Free, Cream and Lynyrd Skynyrd - and have been able to create their own style. It's an individual sound and a whole new way to deliver really heavy and exceptional rock. Their high ambition has pushed them forward, making them proud of the roughness they perform on stage. The album is set for release the 5th of April on The Sign Records.
Four talented musicians have after many years of separate experiences decided to come together and create something new. The members have played with bands and artists as Siena Root, Lisa Lystam Family Band, Diamond Dogs, Stacie Collins and Mårran. They all agree that the organic roots rock deserves a greater attention on the world's rock scene today. Together they have found a sound that they have renewed in an exceptional way - and from that they created something completely own and unique.
A collaboration between these four talented musicians was inevitable, and has resulted in something new: with the raw details and authenticity, they produce exciting mergers into the world of rock. Airy riffs are packaged in a heavy sound - and in contrast, Heavy Feather delivers music leaving the listener in desire for more......rockbladet.se.....~
Another month. Another hot tub time machine filled with tie dyed flares. Yes that’s right it’s bluesy retro rock time. April’s furry freak family are Heavy Feather from Sweden. Big fans of Cream and Free you can guess where this is going to go from the off.
Singer Lisa Lystam has a great bluesy voice with a slight accent which gives it a bit of an edge.
The music is solid and hits all the right grooves and notes in all the right places. Anyone who has been to a blues night in their local or a bike rally will have heard a hundred bands that sound like Heavy Feather. There is nothing original whatsoever in their attitude or delivery, but hey if it ain’t broke and all that. There is no twist, no modern take, no macabre Hammer Horror twist (well at least that is something). These guys sound like a hard working band who play up and down the country to divorcees and young women with Stevie Nicks fixations in 1987.
The quartet are definitely better on the more upbeat stuff. Ballads “Tell Me Your Tale” and “Whispering Things” are like Nyquil after a long hard day in the fields. The latter brings to mind those strange faux American diners on the A303. All Harley Davidson shirts and Texas flags and western themed toilets. Underneath it is just a thinly veneered greasy spoon outside Salisbury......~
The minute any of my friends hear Heavy Feather I can guarantee that they will say, “This is Don’s band!” What can I say? I need to move to Sweden because it seems that’s where the majority of my favorite bands are. Anyways, I definitely have a type but what I love about Heavy Feather is that they seem to have been able to successfully combine all the things I love about this kind of music and turn it into something truly special.
Take the blues attitude of Blues Pills, throw in the psych-rock sounds of Graveyard and add in the groove and melody of Sienna Root for good measure and you get a goulash of pure awesomeness. The opening track, “Where Will We Go,” while an awesome song, isn’t the best representation of this band. If you hear this song and you find yourself thinking that this is just another Blues Pills knock off, keep listening and you will discover that Heavy Feather is in a league of their own.
“Waited All My Life” is gritting lip biting groove fest full of sass via lead vocalist Lisa Lystam. “Dreams” reminds me of a cross between Black Sabbath and something you’d hear in the musical Hair. It has one of the sweetest melodies and a chorus that carries you down this mental river. This is definitely one of those songs best listened to in an altered frame of mind and with your eyes closed
The album closes out with “Whispering Things” which is a melancholy southern rock ballad that makes one think of thick humid air, hanging out at Rose Hill Cemetery paying homage to the fallen Allman Brothers and watching the river roll by. Definitely, a calm and very appropriate way to close out the album leaving you wanting more.
I’ll be honest, I kept my expectations low for Heavy Feather. Were they going to be just another band riding the wave of psychedelic blues rock or were they going to be something else? What I discovered is that While Heavy Feather embodies those elements of music that I already love, the pleasant surprise of the heavy influence of southern rock is what set them away from the pack and made them a band to be eagle eyed. If Heavy Feather keeps this up, I could totally see them achieving great things....by....Don de Leaumont.....~
Heavy Feather takes it back to the roots on their debut album Debris & Rubble. It is a raw, real and heavy riff-based rock. The band is influenced by the greats of the 70's - such as Free, Cream and Lynyrd Skynyrd - and have been able to create their own style. It's an individual sound and a whole new way to deliver really heavy and exceptional rock. Their high ambition has pushed them forward, making them proud of the roughness they perform on stage.
Four talented musicians have after many years of separate experiences decided to come together and create something new. The members have played with bands and artists as Siena Root, Lisa Lystam Family Band, Diamond Dogs, Stacie Collins and Mårran. They all agree that the organic roots rock deserves a greater attention on the world's rock scene today. Together they have found a sound that they have renewed in an exceptional way - and from that they created something completely own and unique. A collaboration between these four talented musicians was inevitable, and has resulted in something new: with the raw details and authenticity, they produce exciting mergers into the world of rock. Airy riffs are packaged in a heavy sound - and in contrast, Heavy Feather delivers music leaving the listener in desire for more......~
Very much a solid first album, Heavy Feather‘s 11-song Débris & Rubble lands at a run via The Sign Records and finds the Stockholm-based classic heavy blues rockers comporting with modern Euro retroism in grand fashion. At 41 minutes, it’s a little long for a classic-style LP if one measures by the eight-track/38-minute standard, but the four-piece fill that time with a varied take that basks in sing-along-ready hooks like those of post-intro opener “Where Did We Go,” the Rolling Stones-style strutter “Waited All My Life,” and the later “I Spend My Money Wrong,” which features not the first interplay of harmonica and lead guitar amid its insistent groove. Elsewhere, more mellow cuts like “Dreams,” or the slide-infused “Tell Me Your Tale” and the closing duo of the Zeppelinian “Please Don’t Leave” and the melancholy finisher “Whispering Things” assure Débris & Rubble never stays in one place too long, though one could say the same of the softshoe-ready boogie in “Hey There Mama” as well. On the one hand, they’re figuring it out. On the other, they’re figuring it out....the obelisk.....~
Sometimes, in these digital times, I think back to the analogous era, when music was still served on large round plates and you actually had to get up to turn the record over after a while (much like the Vinylhypes - the lector). The Swedes of HEAVY FEATHER are sure to do the same, because their debut "Débris & Rubble" breathes the spirit of the 60s and early 70s very authentically. This starts with the band logo, goes over the warm analog sound and ends not only with the usual quotes from groups like CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL, CREAM, LYNYRD SKYNYRD or CANNED HEAT. The quartet around 25-year-old singer Lisa Lystam, who is considered the new blues sensation in Sweden (with her LISA LYSTAM FAMILY BAND), actually manages to put a stamp on the well-known ingredients. HEAVY FEATHER are strongly rooted in Blues Rock, enriching your music additionally with style elements from Southern Rock, Swamp Rock to Folk.
In the quieter moments of the album, which at the same time are the highlights, HEAVY FEATHER even reminds of the brilliant moments of artists as diverse as FLEETWOOD MAC or NORAH JONES. The latter could have been the inspiration for the final track "Whispering Things". Lisa puts a lot of emotion into her voice and creates a goosebump mood from the first to the last second. This song has hit potential. Even the quieter "Tell Me Your Tale" can convince with a folky touch, including harmonica. But that is precisely the crux of "Débris & Rubble". The rockier moments are missing the last kick. Lisa sounds just too nice, the dirt, the jerky is completely missing and that would have been good pieces like "Where Did We Go" to face.
Nevertheless, HEAVY FEATHER can certainly cause a sensation in the retro rock / classic rock scene, because all the pieces go well in the ear and live (if the degree of hardness is slightly screwed upwards) provide more than just neat baby teetering. After all, the Swedes master the basics of songwriting and can find their own niche in the intersection of blues and retro rock......by.....Markus Gruber......~
There is no doubt at all that for a number of years now Sweden’s Evergrey have been in the top echelons of the Melodic/Progressive Metal scene and beyond, the musicianship within the band is simply stunning, and their ability to create a song that envelops you and digs in deep is at times mind blowing. The Atlantic is the follow up to 2014’s amazing Hymns For The Broken and 2016’s The Storm Within.
Kicking this monster off with an epic song and not just in length, although anything that weighs in at almost 8 minutes and still manages to hold the listeners attention is certainly that, “A Silent Arc” is just a piece of beautiful music. Perhaps beautiful is a word not used enough within the spectrum of Heavy music in any of it’s forms, but that’s exactly what this is and as with everywhere else on this album another sign that Evergrey continue to maintain the highest quality in their music. It is massively immersive, never a throwaway piece of music, certainly Dark in places, but this style of music at times needs to be.
This release contains nine great songs alongside the brief interlude that is “The Tidal” which somehow manages to not break the flow and momentum of the album, running straight into the excellent “End Of Silence”, as always Tom’s vocals are simply brilliant, that ability to not only tell the story of the song but to change shade of the storytelling with gentle changes to his delivery, this is such a powerful tool when combined with the rest of the talent in this band, everything morphs so wonderfully. Layer upon layer can be stripped back in the riffs, solos, keyboards and backgrounds that have been created with meticulous thought.
Alongside those mentioned “Departure”manages to just blow me away time and again, each time so far, and I have listened to it a lot, shining a light on a different section, instrument, piece of music or part of the story, it’s just magical. The album closes with two of it’s heavier tracks, nonetheless accessible though and “The Ocean” in particular has one of those infectious overlapping runs that keeps moving your head in the chorus, of all the tracks this one brings me right into the albums cover and powerfully closes out what will no doubt be one of my favourite albums of 2019.
This is already in my Top Ten albums for 2019 and will undoubtedly be a very big contender for the top spot, there’s a wonderful flow to this particular piece of work, Toms vocals are once again impeccable alongside the wonderful musicianship. If you haven’t yet started to pick up any new music in 2019 do yourself a favour and get this album, it truly is stunning and it doesn’t just hit you once and leave you feeling warm and fuzzy, this one has that ability to draw you in and make you want to keep listening. Perhaps it’s long overdue, but people really should be taking more notice of this band purely by their quality if nothing else, they deserve to be household names, can’t wait to hear these tracks live....By Reg Richardson.....~
I do not care that this record comes out only in April. I already know that it will be one of the best I've heard this year when it comes time to think about the best releases of 2019. HEAVY FEATHER is a Swedish band that takes us back to 70 in every note, every second of their music . "Débris & Rubble" is their debut album and they have surpassed any expectations. They are not another retro group anymore. They are not "Occult Rock." It is not another effort to do something psychedelic. It is a jewel that with 11 songs covers the entire spectrum of Rock of the 70s, drinking from many different influences, but always keeping a very heavy Rock as a centerpiece.
A rock that is sometimes psychedelic, sometimes plays with Blues, sometimes filtrea with progressive, even with psychedelic, mixed with Southern Rock and even shows inspirations of classical music. Each theme has something unique, something of its own, but always maintaining cohesion by turning around heavy, traditional riffs with impact, great refrains, a raw sound, a delicious bass, with a lot of density and an exquisite groove and a voice of Lisa with a lot of presence, vigorous, powerful and with Soul aroma. In addition the band has put a tremendous detail in all the instrumentation of the album, with some very natural arrangements, in addition to a production very old school, it is organic and rough.
HEAVY FEATHER in his debut surprise. They have made Rock of the 70 something totally theirs, they have taken it, they have taken it to their land and they have done what they have wanted, achieving as a result something that is only HEAVY FEATHER, that does not serve as background music, that with each change, each note catches your attention, catches you and immerses you. Everything is delicious, everything is natural and personal. If they want, speaking clearly and Spanish, they can be very serious......Queens of Steel.....~
The Swedish foursome with singer presents a noteworthy debut. There are certain similarities with the BLUES PILLS. Nevertheless, the powerful Southern Rock of the feathers is good to eat. On the one hand, this has to do with some influences that come into play in the sound. Certainly acts like THE FREE or BAD COMPANY should be mentioned. Compared to the above pills, the HEAVY FEATHERS are lighter-footed and less heavy. When the mouth organ is unpacked, the Swedes are already approaching their own path.
With groovy numbers like 'Dreams' or brisk rockers á la 'Higher' every car ride (even at speed limit) is fun and entertaining. Striking, despite beautiful solos on guitar and harmonica, the songs come pretty quickly to the point, the quasi-instrumental title track takes just a minute and a half to the finish.
Also in the supreme ballad discipline they can score with 'Tell Me Your Tale'. A certain amount of calm can not hurt if the listener is then ordered back to today with a catchy rock number.
Shortly mentioned, the last song 'Whispering Things' is a damned reminder of FLEETWOOD MAC's 'Atlanto'. And that's a good role model, right?....by....MARIO WOLSKI.....~
They join these four Swedish musicians with long experience in other bands to get a rock album with influences from the past as you can appreciate, although at the same time they boast of having added their personal touch, their own brand, the hardest thing to get surely for any band that starts from scratch. Let's see how it has gone.
To start we have an introductory theme of just over a minute and with a few chords and seventies voices to no longer. Where Did We Go is a rock with soul of blues, classic riffs, classic solos and retro sound no more, ah and a very addictive chorus.
Waited All My Life gives an orientation to its sound rocker, in this case the influences come from the side of the eternal Lynyrd Skynyrd or Creedence Clearwater Revival, with interesting arrangements of space rock that give more variety, but the southern air is what Master the theme from beginning to end.
The truth is that the album offers us a trip to the past in full force, because with Dreams we are immersed in a rock of soul roots that can perfectly drink from the legacy of bands like the Cream or The Yardbirds or even the Deep Purple of the MKIV, punteos crystalline accompanied by paused rhythms with much timbal. I like the soulful touch in Lisa's voice gives depth to the subject.
Higher stands out for its cheerful and danceable rhythm, with some vocal melodies that hook the first, which results in the main attraction of a theme of simple rock structure of a lifetime, this has already been done by the British bands of blues rock Sixty years ago, it is said soon, yes, composed and played in the XXI century continues to sound great, the magic of rock.
Tell Me Your Tale is a ballad of rock blues, with a lot of acoustic sound and the voice in lower registers, good taste in the guitar melodies. Long Ride returns to pull the sound country rock, harmonics and a theme that do not have great variations of rhythm but that is a bit a totum revolutum with bluesys influences as well. I Spend My Money Wrong is a rock theme in the line of the sound of Cream or Free.
We focus the final section of the album with Hey There Mama , noted for its good contributions in the rhythmic base that leads to the subject in the wings from the beginning. Please Do not Leave again pull the funky rock sound of the Deep Purple in the Hughes era, but stands out above all for a long enough part as a psychedelic jam session. Finally we have Whispering Things which is another ballad, more paused even than the previous one, a lot of blues and with everything ready and ready for Lisa's voice to shine.
Returning to the beginning, I do not buy them the originality, they sound like so many other bands, great bands of the past, but that if you want to listen to very good rock songs from the 60s and 70s but composed today with these Swedes you go to have broth for a while. Especially recommended to watch live.....by Luna....~
Heavy Feather’s name is one which follows a proud tradition of combining something dense with something light. Prime examples being Led Zeppelin, and Iron Butterfly. And so from Sweden, emerges the earthy, vaguely swampy, retro musical stylings of Heavy Feather. With a sound deeply rooted in 1974, this four piece stomps, boogie’s and shuffles like a kick ass bar band who’ve cut their teeth playing 3 sets a night in front of a bunch of hostile biker’s who will gladly let you know if you suck.
With unpretentious songwriting and a solid performance, they deliver these tunes with a working mans ethos. There’s Extra Cowbell on tap, and plenty of swirling, snake like bluesy riffs. “Where Did We Go,” “Hey There Mama,” and “Higher,” are stand out tracks. Bell bottoms are fighting their way back into the world, And Heavy Feather would totally rock them too.
Worth checking out on your hi-fi, as you disappear into the plush shag carpet in your sunken living room. Dig it......By jrivera......~
For months we find the surprise that a new band was born in Swedish lands called HEAVY FEATHER , created by guitarist SIENA ROOT , Matte Gustafsson and singer Lisa Lystam , and my curiosity was piqued . Along with them , the Morgan Korsmoe (bass) , shortly after joining the battery Ola Göransson .
It is a parallel project with a vocation for continuity with which they intend to return to the origin. Those sounds that in the late sixties and early seventies to play all kinds of Blues-Rock at high volume, trying to capture their personal experiences in their music. Simple themes (not simple), that walk along the long classic rock highway and make many stops in blues-rock. With influences coming from bands like CREAM , or FREE especially, not in vain, Paul Kossoff is one of the main influences of Matte . "DEBRIS & RUBBLE"is a work that escapes in some way from the stereotype of retro rock bands, here is classic rock, yes, but born of feeling, without poses. It is the music that the quartet honestly feels, and does not execute it for following any type of fashion. Here we will not find any satanic reference or similar things. Eleven short and direct songs, each with its nuances, in which the blues is very present.
The first choruses of Lisa in "Debris & Rubble" and the retro rhythms give us a clue as to where the path through which they are traveling is going. Old-style blues-rock including a harmonic blues in a minute and a half presentation.
Marked by Lisa's vocal records, "Where did go" is a blues-rock in which the Janis Joplin cadence appears with a FREE aftertaste , guitar solos on effective and catchy refrains. Claw and forces united in the same cause with riffs heirs of Kossoff , who are seen by southerners to approach Allman Bross moments . A simple and effective structure of easy digestion for any ear.
The band is able to recover moments between ZZ TOP and Delaney & Bonnie , in "Waited all my life" . A trip back in time to the heart of the seventies with blues more talkative and fun as a protagonist. Overflowing optimism and good vibes, the cut is adorned with some guitar solos, after which Johnny Winter comes to mind .
The influence FREE appears clearly in "Dreams", this time merging it with moments more typical of the most flowery and sensual sounds of the west-coast.
Exploring the CREAM legacy , "Higher" is another of those simple cuts in which starting from a riff, Clapton and his travel companions are portrayed with solos close to southern rock.
Lisa's influence is evident in many of the themes. In "Tell Me your tale" it shows its most sensual side. Caressing and seducing us with his wonderful voice, he transmits us a bucolicism under the watchful eye of an attractive instrumentation. HEAVY FEATHER does not need complex structures to achieve solvent and brilliant subjects. Here they get a ballad full of quiet romanticism. A calm only interrupted by Matte's solos that make the intensity of the cut rise without breaking the magic and the brilliance of a voice full of beauty. His most amiable and seductive records are reflected here.
Again the FREE cadence returns in "Long ride" . Vigorous riffs that descend to soft moments in which the voice of Lissa drags her companions to bucolic pictures of flowery meadows in which the blues is the protagonist. The half-timers involve a theme with a force contained in its entrails that is adorned with some harmonica murmur. Along the same blues-rock path "I Spend my money wrong" raises the tension with heartbreaking moments between boogie-rock and blues. This theme serves as a showcase for the work of Morgan Korsmoe and his bass. Again, simplicity turns out to be an effective formula. "Hey there mama", pick up the wake of the previous theme to color it with blues notes full of light. Without shrillness, the catchy riffs descend to the meadows calmer giving a little twist to the storyline. This is where we can find the most complex subject in terms of composition. The guitar takes the lead with acids alone.
The retro riffs contained and a single sharp and incisive, preside over "Please do not care" . rhythmically but calmly, they give way to the sweetness of a voice that tries to seduce us by being replicated by soft guitar chords. On structures CREAM , the subject in its second half, descends to whispering plains with psychedelic breezes. As if it were paying off, one of the most elaborate themes does not go out of the way marked by that voice that his off in the distance.
The closing to the "DEBRIS & RUBBLE" is put by a song of rural tones. "Whispèring thing" . With a record close to Christine Mc Vie , the bucolicism of the vintage image that they create evokes moments in which the summer of love lived its most critical and flowery moments.....denpa fuzz.....~
Line Up
Lisa Lystam – vocals
Matte Gustavsson – guitar
Morgan Korsmoe – bass
Ola Göransson – drums
Tracklist:
1. Débris & Rubble
2. Where Did We Go
3. Waited All My Life
4. Dreams
5. Higher
6. Tell Me Your Tale
7. Long Ride
8. I Spend My Money Wrong
9. Hey There Mama
10. Please Don’t Leave
11. Whispering Things
