StormTree are a Belfast band comprising of John Guilar, Bill Causby , Conor McCabe, Mick Conlon and Gerry Lisk. Their work is in a style long pioneered in Ireland by past and present bands, like Horslips, The Pogues and Thin Lizzy, combining rock with more traditional celtic styles. There’s also touches of The Waterboys and Simple Minds thrown into the mix for good measure, both being Scottish bands that have that celtic fire running through their veins.
Rain Came Down is the first song on the album Unchained, it has a great opening introduction, picked guitar and fast fiddle. The whistle works well too. John Guilar’s vocals are strong, similar to Jim Kerr of Simple Minds. Guilar cries ‘Violet skies pour down diamond raindrops, to quench the flames that lick your burning skin’ his lyrics able to create images and a vibrant fiddle accompaniment akin to Steve Wickhams’s work for The Waterboys. The driving fiddle vibe continues on Broken Glass, sounding like early Levellers work, a throbbing and tight bass line helping the up tempo beats along.
Paradise takes a drop in tempo, there’s an eighties vibe apparent here, but it’s well done, the various instruments including piano and whistle all working well in the arrangement and a tasteful guitar solo pops up for the first time.
Ride On sounds like the early big sound era Waterboys, Medicine Bow springs to mind, no bad thing. A real Horslips vibe on Strausian American is followed by a couple of Simple Minds style tracks – Springfield Avenue nicely arranged but the whistle doesn’t really bring anything to the table here and Unchained has a great bass line and the vocals are strong.
Castle Street has fantastic arrangement; banjo adds a nice vibe to the rolling bass line, a great number about memories of Belfast. Johnny tells the grim story of a woman chopping a man’s legs off so he can’t leave, all to a rather juxtaposed upbeat backing track that makes it cheery despite the subject matter.
The final track Black Mountain referring to the hills behind Belfast begins with a fingerpicked guitar intro played with delay effects, before a real celtic lion roars with bass and fiddle, this is probably the most traditional sounding track on the album but rocked up surprisingly well , with echoes of The Pogues or The Dropkick Murphys, a great uplifting track to end the album with.
There’s a lot of influence in this album and perhaps it’s not the most original offering in the house of celtic rock, but there’s much to be happy with, great production, strong instrumentation and a good lyricist. If you’re a fan of the other bands mentioned here you’ll want to give this album a spin.
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