Godsticks: Emergence

Have I said before how much I love progressive rock? No? Well I do. Godsticks luckily falls into that category, so to say I was excited about reviewing a prog rock release was an understatement.
Opener ‘Below the Belt’ has great instrumental, heavy guitar and a steady drum beat, but the lyrics seem clunky. At times there are almost too many words thrown in and it seems a bit of a rush for Darren Charles to get them all out.
Though the missteps in the first track are made up for in ‘Ruin’. The lyrics are smart, simple and have that bitter irony underpinning each sentence. There’s something about the guitar intro in ‘One Percent’ that couldn’t be more perfect. It’s a slow building kind of track and once the vocals come in it doesn’t lose momentum. This is the definite highlight on the album so check it out. Title track ‘Emergence’ is a pretty close second too, heavy on guitar, with a slow and solid drumbeat throughout the track.
Overall Godsticks are onto a good thing, they just need to simplify a few of their lyrics here and there and it’d be top marks from me. Instrumentally though they’re spot on. This is a bit of a heavier take on prog rock, so if you like you’re guitar amped up, then pick this one up.
Out now via independent release
Reviewed by Alexander Lightfoot