Album Review: Rifflord – 7 Cremation Ground / Meditation (STB Records)

Founded back in 2007 by vocalist/guitarist Wyatt Bronx Bartlett and guitarist Tom Davoux, heavy rockers Rifflord will soon release their second album, 7 Cremation Ground / Mediation via STB Records. It is the follow up to their 2010 debut, 26 Mean and Heavy.

Bronx says of the band’s music and journey:

Some things are the result of calculated decision making. Other things drag you face down through the dirt by virtue of their own momenta. Rifflord, for me, has been a combination of both. The album […] is a visceral product of struggle, mottled with the fingerprints of both terrible and glorious human beings. It is the sound of countless trips across rural South Dakota and hours of refinement in one studio session after another. The album was mixed five separate times, and remastered three. It is the true and living testament of the Riff. Thank you for waiting.

7 Cremation Ground / Meditation will be released digitally on November 27th 2018 with personalised vinyl options coming out on December 1st 2018.

When Rifflord say they worship the riff, they aren’t kidding as this 13 track album is packed to the brim with hard-rocking, ballsy and all about the good time riffs.

Kicking off with heaviness, Dead Flower Child delivers a frantic listen that shows off the power that Rifflord have in both the guitars and the scratchy clean vocals. It’s a solid start that gives you insight into what Rifflord are all about.

It’s nice though, that they are able to change the formula up with ease as The Other Side begins in a more slower, more affecting style before upping the tempo to scary levels of speed. This track and many that follow it sit between mind-bending trippiness and dusty dryness. It’s variety but not at the expense of the overall hard-rock riff theme.

Thanks to combo of shorter, punchier numbers alongside the more imaginative and longer tracks, the 13 that make up this album rarely disappoint. Even then it’s just through a lack of impact that certain tracks fail to capture the imagination.

It flies by in a blur of riffs as Poison Mother, The Riffman Cometh and Hou Dou Von Dou ensure the name of Rifflord won’t be forgotten easily.

Rifflord – 7 Cremation Ground / Meditation Full Track Listing:

1. Seven
2. Dead Flower Child
3. The Other Side
4. Coyote Fodder
5. Holy Roller
6. BB Gun
7. Trancendental Medication
8. Lucid Trip
9. Poison Mother
10. Electric Grave
11. The Riffman Cometh
12. Hou Dou Vou Dou
13. Thunder Rider Cremation Ground Meditation

You’ll be able to order copies via STB Records here and earlier releases of Rifflord here. Find out more and keep up to date with news by going to Rifflord’s Facebook and Instagram.