:: Black Water Rising - Black Water Rising

Black Water Rising

Despite having the songs, the skill, experience and sound, luck just wasn’t on Dust To Dust’s side, and was officially laid to rest after two well received albums (2001’s self titled effort and 2003’s ‘Sick’). But while Dust To Dust has faded into obscurity, it hasn’t meant that songwriter, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Rob Traynor had suffered the same fate. Instead, the Brooklyn musician quickly immersed himself in a new musical venture, and after gathering up some like minded musicians in Johnny Fattoruso (Ex-Stereomud guitarist), Oddie McLaughlin (Ex-LD/50 bassist) and Mike Meselsohn (Ex-Boiler Room drummer), Black Water Rising was born. The newly founded group quickly produced their four track self-titled EP in 2008, with the band receiving overwhelmingly high praise for the release. Needless to say, the band was keen to capitalise on the response, with their self-titled debut full length album released in early 2009. Twelve months after its initial independent release, the four piece act has been picked up by the newly formed label Giddy Up! Records, where the album has finally been given a worldwide distribution. And the decision to pick up Black Water Rising is definitely a win/win scenario for both the band, and those looking for that something new in the stale U.S. hard rock scene.

First things first, it has to be said that Black Water Rising sounds quite different from Traynor’s former outfit Dust To Dust. While there’s a definite similarity on the vocal front, the music this time has taken on a heavier edge, with Black Water Rising’s music sounding like a cross between Black Label Society, Down, latter era Black Sabbath and Corrosion Of Conformity, with shades of Monster Magnet’s stoner rock thrown in for good measure. And there’s no better example of what typifies the band’s heavy sound than the opener ‘The Mirror’. Huge sounding bass grooves underpin a thick and dense sounding guitar riff, while Traynor’s melodic and passionate vocals help draw all the elements together to absolute perfection. By the band’s own admission, it’s hardly original. But what they deliver to listeners definitely sounds great. The follow up track ‘Brother Go On’ is a real highlight with its distinctive chorus featuring Traynor’s higher register vocals, while the driving ‘Black Bleeds Through’, ‘Living Proof’, ‘Rise’, the slower and darker tempo of ‘The River’ and the retro vibes within ‘Burn It Down’ are also definite favourites. But that’s not to say that the album is all gloom and doom, with tracks such as the quirky ‘Hate Machine’, the biting ‘Blessed’ (Both of which are perhaps as close as Traynor gets to Dust To Dust’s old sound), the damning ‘No Halos’ and the Queens Of The Stone Age tinged ‘Sale On Your Soul’ adding plenty of diversity sound wise throughout the album. For a debut, Black Water Rising’s self-titled album is an absolute stunner. Here’s a band that have actually achieved what they set out to do, and that’s put a new fresh sound on the heavy hard rock sound, and delivered a heavy hard rock album that doesn’t short-change listeners by selling out after a few tracks.
The fact that this band remained unsigned for a year after the album’s initial release is beyond comprehension. But now that it has, I can only hope that it’s an even greater success for the band, and to prove that quality hard rock is still alive and well in the U.S.