ELEVATION FALLS - What Will Be

11 songs
46:13 minutes
***** **
(self-released)

Bandpage

Irish classic rock band Elevation Falls were founded in 2012, and have released since then a couple of singles and EPs. It took them until 2018 though to come up with their first longplayer, titled What Will Be. The quartet shows during the three quarters of an hour running time how varied classic rock can sound.

To be fair, it must be said that Elevation Falls don’t reduce their music to influences from the Seventies. The band’s geographic location somehow makes a comparison to Thin Lizzy mandatory, with the difference that Elevation Falls have with Hazel Jade a woman on the microphone. She has a raw and jaded voice that lies somewhere between Heart’s Ann Wilson and Janis Joplin.

All in all, the band seems to like older music, using elements of blues, Southern rock and even some folk. The songwriting is rather diverse, with tracks like Burn and Armies Rising being among my favourites. Such hard rocking tracks make out about half of the album. Elevation Falls can play also play tamer, with the ballad Take Me Back and the title track reminding of Heart’s quieter moments. Cheating Woman is at five minutes the longest song on the album. This bluesy piece becomes rawer and rawer towards the end. Less great are the mid-tempo Zombie which sounds too commercial and possibly aimed at an American audience, and the soporific ballad Dream Of Me.

Elevation Falls show different faces on their albums, and as I have more of a hard rock and heavy metal background, my preference is for the band’s more rocking material. Hazel Jade’s voice can convince on all the songs, but at times the band lacks a little in heaviness and dynamics. I can imagine that fans of Seventies rock will get just what they like, and even though I didn’t enjoy all of their songs, I have to admit that the band’s unbridled passion is their major strength.