Storm Ross: Welcome, Sunshine LP (Satellite Records, 2016)
October 16, 2016 at 2:53 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Storm Ross: Welcome, Sunshine LP
Following 2014’s incredible
The Green Realm, local musician Storm Ross returns with second album
Welcome, Sunshine, which is described as “A Plea In Ten Parts” on the back cover. His first album was a hard-to-describe mix of doomy guitars, pounding drums, and noisy electronics. This album is far more urgent, with upfront rhythms and soaring guitar melodies. Opening track “We Need to be Fugazi Now, More Than Ever” sets the tone, building its easily hummable guitar melody up along with crashing drums and wailing sax. “Please Don’t Kill My Family” is noisier and fearsome, and it segues into the hypnotic, electrically charged guitar solo “Benzie County Farm Fire, 1973”. The bluntly titled “You Will End!” has busy drumming and frantic guitar work. “A Life of Passwords” and “Lamentation” are both more ethereal, with “Lamentation” filled with a forest of strange noises and nearly coming close to sounding like early His Name Is Alive. “Atheon” is a long, steady, slowly building centerpiece with more scorching guitars and Krauty electronics. “I Will Try To Be Better” is another reflective guitar piece, and “The Smiler” returns to splashing drums and bubbling electronics along with the fiery guitars. “Hold Your Head High In The End Times” has another tricky rhythm, and its cheery demeanor in the face of tragedy makes it the album’s “Always Look On the Bright Side Of Life”. Triumphant as well as vulnerable, this album is a much different beast than
The Green Realm, and it’s no less powerful. Also I’m thanked on the back cover (along with former WCBN MDs Aaron Smith and D. Alfred Lyons)!
The Answer Is In The Beat 
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