The Stone Gods : Temple of Rock

This is Nottingham.co.uk – Interview with Toby

Stone Gods – the band that have risen like a phoenix from the ashes of The Darkness -make their festival bow at Download. I caught up with the only member that was never in The Darkness, long-time friend of the band, Toby MacFarlaine.

STEVE HAINES

Dan Hawkins will be hoping so. Justin’s brother, or more fairly one of the two principal creative forces behind the Darkness, rocks his way back into contention with this, the first fruits of his work with bass player Richie Edwards and drummer Ed Graham. They’ve even got their own label, so no danger of musical differences this time – but they’re clearly keen to preserve their previous identity, with the link to the old Darkness website now pointed straight at the Stone Gods.

It doesn’t take long to realise they mean business either. “Foul play, mark of the devil” cries Edwards as Burn The Witch makes its presence felt. All lyrics are bound to be scrutinised for traces of animosity or other feeling between Dan and Justin, but the impression here is that the Darkness have been left far behind.

They certainly have musically. This rocks in a different, much more serious way, and though the parody isn’t as blindingly obvious there’s a huge helping of what used to be known as ‘hairdryer rock’. Edwards has more than a passing similarity to Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliot in the vocal department, and so that comparison is inevitable even before the big drums make their presence felt.

Led Zeppelin, too, are a big influence. Hawkins’ thrilling guitar virtuosity is still present, again used in context of the song rather than for self-gratification. But there’s no doubt the songs are lacking that final touch that would make them big rock anthems.

Powerful choruses abound for sure, and the band sound confident and assured in the darkness to light of Defend Or Die. “You brought a knife to a gunfight, so fuck you!” they cry in the next song – dismissing their target with ease. But while this is impressive bravado, there’s little of that sense of humour we used to love from The Darkness. But then again, why should the Stone Gods do the predictable thing?

There are some touches of humour, but they are heavily signposted and hackneyed. The brief calypso interlude in Don’t Drink The Water is a criminal offence, which would be funny were it not rather too earnest.

This is for fans only you might suspect – and those rare specimens who’ve had a long sabbatical since the power rock of the 1980s and want a new band to get into. Live they’re bound to be strongly entertaining, but on record it all sounds like a retread of twenty year old rock. That said, you can’t help but admire at the forthright way in which it’s delivered.

- Ben Hogwood - musicOMH.com

In Classic Rock this week, our boys are mentioned as part of a section called ‘Unleashed – Ones To Watch In 2008′

STONE GODS Darkness men put the pet panthers out to pasture

The Stone Gods have emerged from the ashes of The Darkness. That might sound like a voiceover for a sci-fi movie but it’s true. The Stone Gods are The Darkness minus Justin Hawkins, but with the addition of Toby Macfarlaine on bass. Darkness bassist Richie Edwards, meanwhile, has strapped on a six-string and stepped up the mic. “We deliberately kept things low-key since Justin quit,” says Edwards, “but now we’re raring to go and we’ve already got an album in the can. First we’ll have an EP, Burn The Witch, out in January. We’re nothing like The Darkness. We’re raw, heavy and in your face. Will we be doing any old Darkness songs live? Emphatically not.”

http://www.chartattack.com/damn/2007/12/1004.cfm

Stone Gods To Rise Out Of The Darkness With New Album Next Year
Monday December 10, 2007 @ 07:00 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

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After months of speculation and delays, the former members of British rock band The Darkness have finally settled on a new band name: Stone Gods.

The new outfit, who feature three members of The Darkness and lead singer Richie Edwards, were supporting Thin Lizzy on a British tour this month but had to pull out of some dates after Edwards became ill and was ordered to rest.

“All I do know is that it feels as though Stone Gods has arrived and no fucker is ever going to be able to ignore us,” bassist Toby Macfarlaine wrote in a recent blog post on the band’s MySpace page. “For better or worse, people, we’re in this together until the end. It’s started. See you at the gates of hell!”

The group played their first show in late November and seemed pleased with the response.

“The first show at Leicester was a very special moment, we’ve been holed up in the studio for the best part of a year writing and recording our album and we were chomping at the bit to get out and play live,” Edwards wrote on his MySpace page. “The show was awesome and there was much hugging and high fiving in the dressing room afterwards.”

The still-untitled album is being recorded at Dan Hawkins’ home studio and is being co-produced by Hawkins and Nick Brine. It should be out next summer, but “Burn The Witch” can already be previewed on the Stone Gods MySpace page. No other song titles have been revealed, but a limited-edition Burn The Witch EP is expected in January.

“If your favourite song of all time was ‘Friday Night’ then you’ll hear ‘Burn The Witch’ and you probably won’t like it,” Dan Hawkins wrote on the band’s official site. “But that’s cool.

“In a way, that’s exactly what we want! We don’t want people shouting for Darkness songs.”

Jason MacNeil