Album Review: The Amazons’ “The Amazons”

“Stay With Me” opens the album with clashing percussion and roaring guitars, guaranteed to get your attention. “Burn My Eyes” proves that those loud instrumentals weren’t just a ploy for attention, and proceeds to deliver the sonic punch of a monster truck revving up. “In My Mind” is a stand-out, if only because it slows things down a bit, and “Raindrops” isn’t far behind. Some of the heaviness is stripped away, and soaring melodies and isolated bluesy riffs take the spotlight. “Black Magic” is without a doubt the best song on the record. It’s got all the elements that make this album what it is, from punishing guitars to raucuous drums, plus particularly elegant vocals and lyrics, and a killer guitar hook that cuts straight through all the background noise. “Little Something” is filled with scraping basslines and cutting vocals, and the effect of limiting the instrumentals for much of the track is to cause each sound to feel stark against the relative silence. It is the only song on the record that truly feels dark, and its eerie nature is refreshing. The album ends with “Palace,” a piano ballad that feels abrupt, considering the rest of the album’s sound, but fits lyrically and is gently compelling.

The Amazons have successfully established a brutal indie rock sound with their debut album. The heavy guitars occasionally break off into clever little riffs, and there’s a degree of experimentation with the vocals, but for the most part this is a very straight-forward rock record. “The Amazons” is very good. But it also feels like playing it safe. The best tracks are the ones where the band took risks and stripped some of the instrumentals down, or played around with the vocals. The rest of the songs have a tendency to feel like framework, when we would rather have more details added to the picture within. Each song has strong elements, and many of them are catchy rock anthems, but they could be pushed to reach the level of singles like “Black Magic” and “In My Mind.” However, this is a debut album. The Amazons have created a record chock-full of arena-ready hits, and should be very pleased with themselves.

Favorites: “In My Mind,” “Little Something,” “Black Magic”

Similar to: Estrons, VANT, The Pale White