WL//WH Review HEALTHYLIVING
HEALTHYLIVING, Demelza Kingston – Oculus Sinistra Photography
On April 7, HEALTHYLIVING from Edinburgh, self-released their supersonic radiant debut album “Songs of Abundance, Psalms of Grief”, and with a title like that I expected things to be at least striking. Still, to my surprise, this album is beyond…this record is tremendous. The band consists of three members, Amaya López-Carromero on vocals and lyrics, Scott McLean on the guitar, bass, synth, and Stefan Pötzsch on the drums. Credits also to Ghale Rhodes who kindly donated the cover picture, and of course to Chamber Studio, Edinburgh, which applied that solid, compact sound all over this magical debut release.
All music, says Bandcamp, is written by HEALTHYLIVING, and this is completely understandable around the middle of the record. It is quite clear to my ears who is the riff-master, who is the melody leader, and who applied that solid rock for the band to stand on and blow their spells. Everything sounds like a mystical blend of post-metal, doom-metal, and occasional noise rock, while all the shoegazers will relate to their sound and the linear and oblong gtr-paths at times. Things here are intense, with very skilled players all of them, and where their music is based on the climax of synthesis and output. Luckily for them (and us I guess) the band has an amazing singer at the front; I can hardly tell what are her influences or who may be her primal starting point. “Galleries” is one of the leading songs of the album, turn it loud and listen carefully to this musical creation…
…well, the trip goes on in “Dream Hive” where the band shows admiration for the witchery soundscapes of the occult hard rock scene and with a grounded dedication to their cause; to bring back to life music that’s coming from a spider web in a cave…and all in the face!
Pretty impressive in all this band, I thought until came the most peculiar track of the record. “To The Gallows”, where in only 3′:15″ I was feeling one blow after another slap in an enviable and yet very intense song. Here, they tried their existence under the wicked wings of Deathrock on the slippy rails to the post-metal destination… ‘groove’ is a word that can’t fit them easily, my desk went on fire!
I don’t want to write more about this stunning record of high expectations because I simply never write very long reviews; can be tiring to the reader or can be unimportant from a point onward. I gave you only 3 songs from “Songs of Abundance, Psalms of Grief” the Debut LP by HEALTHYLIVING and I hope you got it clearly, the record is beyond, and the band is a very serious act that my experience is shouting to me “if all goes well they’ll be here for long and with albums so amazing – after all this is only their first handshake with the dark alternative front”.
Grab it on Vinyl, CD, or Digitally, and listen to it loud!!!
Keep up with healthyliving:
Photo by Sandrina Schwarz
Written by Loud Cities’ Mike
