Album Review: Bort – Crossing the Desert (Self Released)

Vancouver British Columbia stoner rock band, Bort will release their debut album, Crossing the Desert on April 6th 2018. Incorporating a lot of stoner influences, from bands like Truckfighters, Red Fang and early CKY, as well as the broader tonality of groups such as Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Queens of the Stone Age.

White Desert Sun’s heavy groove and gruff vocals is a strong start for the hard rocking Bort. The guitar work is simply sublime, brilliantly catchy. It’s an exciting opener and early confirmation that Crossing the Desert is going to be something special.

The cleaner, more refined stoner groove is what makes tracks like The Beerfields of Bridgeview and Hello, Mr Thompson stand out. Heavy but not weighing you down, the riffs coil tightly around slowly squeezing the life out of you. It’s very easy to lose yourself in the upbeat sound of Bort.

The highlight of the record is the excellent Sacraments & Bayonets, a track that soars thanks to the wonderful contrasting vocals and some eye-wateringly good guitars. Here, Bort show just how ahead of their peers they are with even a killer solo thrown in.

The faster pace returns for the rocking Lady Kyteler, the stoner beat of Well Respected Man, the gruff noise of The Flood before Soul Eater ends things as they begun. The latter half of the album doesn’t have any drops in quality making Crossing the Desert a brilliant listen from beginning to end.

That Bort keep things so restrained for most of the album shows they’re aware of not over-doing it, something that stoner rock/metal can be accused of on occasion. It’s only Soul Eater that goes over the 6-minute mark but being the finale, it can be forgiven. That & it’s a body-shaking, skull-rattling finish.

Bort – Crossing the Desert Full Track Listing:

1. White Desert Sun
2. The Beerfields of Bridgeview
3. Worldbane
4. Hello, Mr. Thompson
5. Sacraments & Bayonets
6. Lady Kyteler
7. Well Respected Man
8. The Flood
9. Soul Eater

You can order the album now via Bandcamp and find out more/support Bort via Facebook and Instagram.