Kallus Valley

There’s no room for argument when talking about Ohio’s wealth of riff warlords. The state blooms riffs faster than state flowers…I mean…Midnight, Boulder, Fistula, Rebreather, Lo-Pan, Abdullah, Rue, Keelhaul, Craw, Disengage, Mockingbird, Sloth, Sofa King Killer… Yeah, I can do this for the next hour or so, I’ll spare you a dead sea scroll length list of killer bands. Like other great breeding grounds of the riff (the entirety of the UK and Germany, Maryland, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Cali, etc.), there’s an almost endless amount of discoveries to be made in Ohio.

The latest king’s ransom from the Buckeye State is a riffin’ and rockin’ power trio called Kallus Valley who have just dropped their debut EP No Burning Fire into the digital arena. Comprised of guitarist/vocalist Tyler LaMar, bassist Joe Owen, and drummer Dan Romeiro, this threesome has a powerful, old fashioned classic rock style (think BOC) mixed with metal, Maryland doom, Palm Springs’ stoner, and a certain Seattle grunginess. It’s vocally clean, chockfull of distinctive riffing, rhythmically driving, and just all around righteously constructed stuff that takes rock back to simpler times.

“Blessed Apathy” goddamns the torpedoes with rapturing hard-rock riffs straight out of late 70s/early 80s BOC with LaMar channeling Buck Dharma in his well-endowed, shimmering guitar leads and heavy metallic riff boogie. There’s anthem written all over this one from the first riff to the last. Owen’s bass pushes the groove along at just the right volume, and Romeiro commands attention with his jazzy snare taps (though I wish he was produced just a hair louder) and agile cymbal smashes. Tyler’s got a voice smoother than a 50 dollar bottle of bourbon…nothing aggressive, instead a rich, versatile power croon that follows every swaying riff’s staggering rise and fall. The psychedelic instrumental break around the 3:30 mark is a particular highlight with LaMar’s solo crawling into a labyrinth of heavily tangled, cobwebbed low-end.

Intertwining melodies take a deep toke of Pink Floyd’s herbal divinity during the first moments of “Broken Hands” where the bass injects subliminal messages into the music beneath a crashing wave of drippy guitar FX. I imagine myself at the top of a lighthouse watching a peaceful sea through binoculars. The moody, sea farin’ calm is broken at the bow by bruising, melodic doom riffing that doesn’t sound like traditional stoner fare at all. There’s an emotion to the playing as the riffs change from sweet minor key lead-work to the regality of doom’s dirt stained red carpet that calls to mind prime Maryland rock n’ roll. The volume of the drumming fits better on this one, and Dan punctuates standard hard rock beats with shifty fills that really shake up the ground beneath the earthy riffs.

They introduce “Innerfearance” in much of the same way as the prior track with soft and soothing clean tones, BUT when the true vibe kicks in the song transcends into pure riff-y doom rock...the variety so beautifully performed on Unorthodox’s Awaken or more recently Sierra’s Pslip masterpiece (these guys remind me of the excellent Valkyrie a bit too...and Swedish killers Dozer as well). LaMar adds a big bluesy bend to each note that ends the main riff, while the rhythm section works the pocket for all of their worth. Now, I’m starting to think the quiet drumming on the first track was just a personal ear failure, ‘cause it’s so on the fucking mark here in terms of volume that my small nitpick from earlier seems totally bullshittin’ and generally absurd now. This sucker’s the best track on the EP, and one that illustrates this band isn’t cutting anything relatively by the numbers. Alongside the high hoisted riffs and powerhouse rhythms, Tyler channels his rocked-out leads directly from the late 70s, and solos like he’s in a killer 80s metal band. All muscle and no fat on these bones… The title track takes the same bluesy, ballsy 70s ideals of “Innerfearance” and slows ‘em down into a fat split of smoking Sabbath riffage with a greasy southern twang. I’m not sure which is kicking my ass more, those brutish Iommi riffs, the finger freakin’ solos, or the straight-up head-bangin’ metal riffs that drag the song kicking and screaming to its finish…all three are doing the job and then some. Closing instrumental, “Valley Jam” only sticks around for a minute and change, yet it packs every single bit of the band’s style into a compact rocker jammed with just about every worthwhile 70s/80s riff permutation imaginable!

No Burning Fire foretells a very bright future for this young band. This is not the same old thing with a new name that sounds like the 400th version of Fu Manchu and Kyuss. There’s a unique edge on this EP that I can’t wait to see played out on a full-length LP. The band was nice enough to hook me up with a new track “Buzzard” for buying the songs, and phew, it’s a barnburner with a wall of blues riffs and crazed guitar solos that’ll kick your ass over the nearest cliff. If you like riffs, detailed instrumentation, and anything inspired by the hard-rock sounds of 70s/80s metal and heyday 90s thunder you got to have this! Great band…. - Jay Snyder

No Burning Fire is a fusion of a Sound Garden-ish Stoner groove and guitar breaks that would not be out of place in an 80ies Heavy Metal band. With shades of light and dark, Kallus Valley put their own twist on a classic sound with the marriage of these great genres, and they have done it very well indeed. Favorite track: Innerfearance. - Harry Harrison