The Stone Gods : Temple of Rock

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Album: Stone Gods – Silver Spoons & Broken Bones

July 22nd, 2008 · No Comments

Stone Gods
Silver Spoons & Broken Bones
Integral/PIAS

by Ryan Williams

From the ashes of The Darkness has come Stone Gods. It’s impossible to talk about this band without mentioning the multi-million selling band that spawned them, so why bother trying.

The formula of retro rock – AC/DC and Def Leppard the templates rather than Queen and Led Zeppelin this time – is wonderfully familiar. The band’s style is raucous but grounded and with the explosive, unpredictable, self-combustible factor of Justin Hawkins out of the equation, there appears to be a bit more stability with Richie Edwards at the helm.

Stone Gods have been taking their time and touring the UK incredibly hard prior to the release of Silver Spoons & Broken Bones and it appears their hard work is paying off as the y gain plaudits from critics and fans alike.

Opening track ‘Burn The Witch’ is dumb, family fun and totally sets the tone for an unruly hard rocking ride. That’s the key. It’s hard rock in the ’80s style for dudes who have a family. It’s beautifully inoffensive and just overblown enough to be bloody brilliant.

It’s important to remember that this is Dan Hawkins’ baby and he was just as important to The Darkness as his brother but was the understated workhorse rather than the flamboyant showman. As a result, this album apes music from decades gone just as much but a lot less conspicuously.

The self-indulgent factor has gone out of the window and a new level of maturity has come into Hawkins’ songwriting which allows the songs to flow and differentiate with commanding choruses and foot-stamping verses.

If you pick this record up hoping for the third Darkness record you will be slightly disappointed because if you’re just looking for a bit of fun, you won’t get it here. Stone Gods mean business and they will deliver.

4.5/6

Three members of the much admired, and equally loathed, Darkness decided they wanted to continue doing music after Justin Hawkins — lead singer of the Darkness — pranced off to rehab and other things. His brother Dan Hawkins, got the rest of Darkness together with the former bassist, Richie Edwards. This is their first release and its first single “Kill the Witch,” is one hell of a freaking new wave of British heavy metal/hard rock stomper. There are still whiffs of other classic British bands like The Sweet, Queen, Thunder and even um… Busted. However as an effort to kick-out the jams, this is a great album. The quality of the musicianship is rather good and it is quite listenable. This is a grower without a doubt and the band are clearly finding their footing. The one thing that strikes you listening to this album is a keen desire to hear what they are going to come up with next. There is talent there in spades, and a keen sense of songcraft; a bit more originality would not go amiss however. This is probably one of the best British heavy rock releases this year.

Marty Dodge

Bc Music

Monday, July 14, 2008
Album Review : Silver Spoons & Broken Bones – Stone Gods*****

yorkshiresoul.org

Room Thirteen.com

Formed after the demise of highly successful and passionately comical band the Darkness, the Stone Gods takes lead guitarist Dan Hawkins, rhythm guitarist and lead singer Richie Edwards, drummer Ed Graham and bassist Toby MacFarlaine to new levels of extraordinary with their debut release, the highly anticipated ‘Silver Spoons & Broken Bones’.

To clear things up from the start, you are remembered not to go into this record expecting anything like the tunes Darkness were releasing. This band differs COMPLETEY in their vocal, musical and attitude arrangements and ambitions. There are no comical Justin Hawkins vocals on this record, no rugged uneven sputters of words or high-pitched tones. Ritchie is able to contain himself in a wide range of musical pitches and tempos from the loud screeches of ‘I’m With The Band’ to the softer and subtle sound that run through a number of tracks. One thing that remains consistent is his zealous nature for all he is singing.

Each track present on this release is saturated with passion, originality and pure rock rhythms. Being the first track to listen to, ‘Burn The Witch’ sums up the album as a whole pretty damn well. From the sounds, the excitement and enjoyment of playing and singing, you know that the rest of the tracks are going to be of such high quality.

Most of the tracks have sing-a-long choruses. The upbeat shouts to ‘You Brought A Knife To A Gunfight’ are incredible and had me grasped at the first shout of “if you think you’ve got a chance take a shot now”. ‘Don’t Drink The Water’ has an energy driven chorus that once heard, will remain a firm favourite.

The album sounds very much an album of pleasing tunes that vary from pure hard rock energies of ‘Defend or Die’, more ballad folksy tunes like ‘Magdalene Street’, the quite peaceful soulful sounds of ‘Lazy Bones’ and the softer rock arrangements of ‘Where You Coming From’ that very much sound reminiscent of Bon Jovi’s early days; their best days.

The riffs run through these tracks like a man running from the devil. The static energies gather power and force through the first twelve tracks and because of this, they let lose a wonder of creation with the concluding number ‘Oh Where ‘O My Beero’ a track that has it all, and makes an excellent closing number to a great album.

Michelle Moore

www.musicomh.com

dieshellsuit.co.uk

	Stone Gods “Silver Spoons & Broken Bones”
	We rate this: 7 out of 10
	Readers rate this: 9 out of 10
	OK so these are 3 guys from The Darkness, but they are putting the pop aspects of that band behind them in the form in of the more rock driven Stone Gods. In fact a quote from their bio reads “An entirely tougher, edgier and heavier beast than their former band, the arrival of Stone Gods represents a scintillating new dawn for British rock music.” Well that can only be a good thing for us all then. The first song is Burn the Witch, which is a classic AC/DC crossed with Metallica and that should give you an idea where these guys are going with their music. The music does have a heavy edge but whether it�s good for British Rock Music I�m not sure because a few of the tracks sound as if their influences come from Southern Rock? Also in the Bio it does state that the band has spent the last year  carefully crafting the songs . Though it sounds as though they spent the year listening to AC/DC, Thin Lizzy and even Whitesnake?! Overall this album has great production and does rock more than The Darkness ever did, and the song Don’t Drink The Water is just as humorous. But for a real beefy rock track you can’t go wrong with single Knight of the Living Dead. If British guitar driven music needs a shot in the arm, so to speak, this should be it. If only to drive away some of the jangly kooky nonsense about at present.

Dan Searles

www.thesun.co.uk

July 2nd, 2008 by The Editor

And at long last, here’s the début album from Stone Gods, the band that survived Justin Hawkins’s ego. The question is, does Silver Spoons & Broken Bones step out sufficiently from the shadow of The Darkness to let Stone Gods stand tall in their own right?

Straight off the block, I don’t think it’s unfair to say that Stone Gods are never going to be as big as The Darkness were, because the musical landscape isn’t as fertile for the classic hard rock sound as it was earlier in the decade. However, that’s not to say they don’t have the skills – after all, it’s largely the same band, the major change being new frontman Richie Edwards, promoted from humble guitar tech to howling out the songs stage centre. Edwards may not have the instantly recognisable falsetto of his predecessor, but he’s got a solid Bon Scott screech and plenty of delivery panache.

Stone Gods are diverse in their appropriation of old styles – you can quite easily play “spot the inspiration” as you listen to Silver Spoons & Broken Bones – but they’re approaching the material from that familiar direction, coming down the narrow and occasionally treacherous path between homage and pastiche. So what you get is a collection of thirteen songs that all sound curiously familiar – provided you have a passing familiarity with the classic monsters of rock.

Maybe it’s just personal preference, but I definitely feel Stone Gods are at their best on the more raucous rock tunes. The Monty-Python-meets-Tenacious-D of “Burn The Witch” is uncomplicated but energetic, while “Don’t Drink The Water” sounds like an Anglophonic AC/DC … had AC/DC ever abandoned sleazy innuendo for writing songs about package holidays in Spain, that is. Make no mistake, Silver Spoons & Broken Bones has a brisk comic undercurrent.

The problem is that makes the ballads and slower numbers fall a bit flat; I find myself waiting for gags that don’t arrive. Kudos to Stone Gods‘ song-craft, though; they know how to assemble a radio-friendly tune with classic appeal, and their resurrection of the golden era rock sounds is faithful and precise, which should endear them to an older audience base. Silver Spoons & Broken Bones isn’t going to be wowing “the kids” on MTV2, though – wistful Zeppelin-esque jangles like “Magdelene Street” won’t appeal to the novelty haircut lobby.

But Stone Gods are openly insistant that they’re not interested in fame and fortune this time round, and if that’s true they’ve taken the sensible choice by playing what they really love. The older market is more forgiving and more loyal over time, and I can imagine Stone Gods never being short of support slots on the nostalgia circuit.

And there’s more than a couple of tracks on Silver Spoons & Broken Bones that will find their way into the list of reliable end-of-night tracks of rock Djs everywhere; the cheery hedonisms of “Wasting Time” and “I’m With the Band” have singalong choruses that will provide the perfect ending to a beery night down the pub with your mates. What could be more rock’n’roll than that?

The Dreaded Press