30 Mar 2024
UsernamePassword

Remember Me? | Join | Recover
Click here to sign in via social networking

71 Sunset - Album Review: Bitter Earth

07 Dec 2015 // A review by Peter-James Dries

As promised by the previous outing, the Mule EP, 71 Sunset’s debut LP, Bitter Earth, is a deluge of tight riffage in their signature throw back to old school 70’s Hard Rock and 90’s alternative style.

Where Mule was a short, heavy hitting mix of four tracks showcasing the band’s best pieces and techniques, just long enough for a single attention span, Bitter Earth spreads the awesome over an entire album. Hard hitting from the start, there is a more Progressive element in a lot of the songs, and even the album itself seems to get heavier as it progressed.

Being a full length, there is more room to explore different influences and different techniques. I’m hearing pieces of Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Pantera, Mike Patton, and  other 90’s legends close to my heart. I’m not saying it’s experimental; 71 Sunset sound like they know what they’re doing, and that is escaping the pigeon hole and providing a wide array of styles and genres. But this isn’t a tribute album, or a cover band, in the same way Nirvana wasn’t a Led Zeppelin tribute band. This difference is the way 71 Sunset have taken the sounds that influenced them and used them to build their own unique sound.

Bitter Earth is a raw record, not to the point of sounding like it’s recorded on a tape deck in a prison, but enough to sound like a true performance. In a lot of places it’s heavier than the preceding EP, and in others there’s more of an Easy-listening classic rock motif.

While Bitter Earth may not provide the next big New Zealand rock hit, this is in no way forgettable album. 71 Sunset have amalgamated the best of the nineties into a cohesive album that is worthy of a place amongst the great bands of that generation.

You can download and stream Bitter Earth from the Seventy One Sunset Bandcamp Page.

 

About 71 Sunset

71 Sunset are an alternative-rock band based in Auckland, who have drawn on a vast range of influences to create their own unique sound.

Signed to AAA Records late in 2013, the self-produced Mule EP (recorded with Andrew Buckton at studio 203) was released on the label early in 2014. The EP's title track and video received strong radio and TV play, as well as receiving critical recognition both inside and outside New Zealand.

MetalMusicArchives.com said "There is a real honesty about this music, it feels 'real' and grunty in an era when music often feels false and manufactured" while Muzic.net.nz followed that with "The music of 71 Sunset has been described by the Rock FM as "great hooks and solid riffs". An apt description of what can also be described as a throwback to seventies Hard Rock with a modern twist. Hard and fast, an EP just isn't enough. I can't wait to see more released from these guys."

Visit the muzic.net.nz Profile for 71 Sunset

Releases

Bitter Earth
Year: 2015
Type: Album
Mule
Year: 2014
Type: EP

Other Reviews By Peter-James Dries

Yann Le Dorré - Album Review: The Circus is Closed
19 Dec 2023 // by Peter-James Dries
“We are Sex Bob-Omb and we're here to make you think about death and get sad and stuff!” - Scott Pilgrim vs.
Read More...
Sanoi - Album Review: Echoes Of Home
25 Nov 2023 // by Peter-James Dries
Electronica offers no escapism for me. It’s more of what I already have.
Read More...
Throng - EP Review: Decoherence
20 Oct 2023 // by Peter-James Dries
You know that thing where the letter B has a personality, or words have textures and colours? That’s called synaesthesia.
Read More...
Fortress Europe - Album Review: Old World
10 Oct 2023 // by Peter-James Dries
Have you ever been torn between listening to Mozart or Periphery? Does Epica have too much of that darn singing for your tastes?
Read More...
Yurt Party - Album Review: Yurt Party
07 Sep 2023 // by Peter-James Dries
It sure isn't summer, and this is really not the Balkans, but Yurt Party’s new self-titled album refutes that. Back with another one of them Balkan rocking beats, Yurt Party’s debut is jazzy, erratic, and full of zest and energetic grooves, with flavour notes of ska, dub, and bergamot.
Read More...
day13n - Album Review: /7/13/7/
06 Aug 2023 // by Peter-James Dries
I’m too old for this world. We’ve devolved to the point where music is only as good as the soundtrack to your 10 second TikTok, and the thirty thousand copies recycling the idea.
Read More...
The New Existentialists - Single Review: Invocation
16 Jul 2023 // by Peter-James Dries
The New Existentialists, a doom metal band known for their dark and atmospheric soundscapes, have just… Wait a minute… No. The New Existentialists are really not a doom metal band, and they’re really not known for their dark soundscapes… They’re more known as stalwarts of a bygone era.
Read More...
Samuel Philip Cooper - Album Review: Journey to Sobriety
01 Jun 2023 // by Peter-James Dries
Samuel Philip Cooper sits on the brink of social media stardom, with videos of his belting out pop music piano covers from behind a pair of thick spectacles racking up views and likes on Insta. Little do any of the mindless doom scrollers swiping through his reels know, but percolating behind his eye brows is the very key to their very salvation.
Read More...
View All Articles By Peter-James Dries

NZ Top 10 Singles

  • WE CAN'T BE FRIENDS (WAIT FOR YOUR LOVE)
    Ariana Grande
  • BEAUTIFUL THINGS
    Benson Boone
  • END OF BEGINNING
    Djo
  • LOSE CONTROL
    Teddy Swims
  • TEXAS HOLD 'EM
    Beyonce
  • STICK SEASON
    Noah Kahan
  • PRAISE JAH IN THE MOONLIGHT
    YG Marley
  • CARNIVAL
    Kanye West And Ty Dolla $ign
  • SATURN
    SZA
  • LOVIN ON ME
    Jack Harlow
View the Full NZ Top 40...
muzic.net.nz Logo
100% New Zealand Music
All content on this website is copyright to muzic.net.nz and other respective rights holders. Redistribution of any material presented here without permission is prohibited.
Report a ProblemReport A Problem