Butterfly – Doorways Of Time
Petrichor
Release Date: 05/03/2021
Running Time: 37:01
Review by Simon Black
9/10
Sometimes bands don’t make it easy for you. It was genuinely the kind of hard work, us journalists in the third decade of the 21st Century intensely dislike, to find out who actually is in this Australian band, as their press release says nothing. That’s about three minutes digging on Google, for those of you who have not had our decades of intensely specialised training and experience – I mean I had to start going to the second page of the search results! And here lies part of the charm, as not only is the music from another decade, so too is their internet presence. Try it – their Facebook page is updated regularly, but is a bit Spartan and apart from a Bandcamp link (which you know you want to follow) there is really nothing else out there. That’s rather wonderful, as it forces us lazy journalists to focus entirely on what we have at our disposal, to whit the nine songs sent for review.
The MP3 version of this has actually been out there since last June and this release is mainly for the benefit of the physical versions, which include a retro 180g audiophile vinyl version, as well as a CD and yes, even a cassette tape version. They weren’t even on Spotify when I first reviewed this (they are now), so I was even starting to think they might have a phobia for any technology post 1980’s, but then considering how most bands usually end up paying more to services like that in listing fees than they ever recoup, I can hardly blame them. The music has its feet very firmly in the very early 1970’s, and to be honest I would say even further back than that with a generous helping of US psychedelic in the guitar sound and the trippy vocal harmonies. The sound is very much of that early Hard Rock ethos, despite the twin guitars and a bit of mild distortion, it all feels very pre-Metal to me, making this a refreshing change and in many ways I’m reminded of the mood and tone of Steppenwolf.
The vocals are an incredibly powerful factor in this band, as each of the four instrumentalists shares the vocal duties, so you get the kind of variety and range across the tracks that evokes early KISS. Clearly having a group of people able bring their own distinct songs to the table whilst still retaining a distinct house sound feels like a lost skill for the generations that grew up obsessing over who was fronting the band. That variety extends to the song-writing – all clearly the same band but each track is clearly and distinctly its own beast, with a production quality and sound that genuinely feels like it was cut on fifty-year-old recording technology and remastered recently and nails the retro feel more accurately than many bands riding that wave currently. Cats In Space, check your rear-view mirror, you aren’t alone…
So, our esteemed editor asked me a key question, which was do I actually like this record? And the answer is a resounding “Yes”. I mean there aren’t many albums that feel like they belong from before I was born, given that I came into this world 11 days before the first Black Sabbath album and that alone needs a celebratory drink raising.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Desert Chase
02. Climbing A Mountain
03. Doorways Of Time
04. The Night Is On Its Way
05. No Body
06. The Sin
07. Heavy Metal Highway
08. Crawling
09. The Scorpion
LINE-UP:
Phil Gresig – Vocals, Bass
Rob Wog – Vocals, Drums
Luke Robertson – Vocals, Guitars
Philip T. King – Vocals, Guitars
LINKS:
Official website – Nah!
Instagram – Do we look like millennials?
Twitter – What the mother-in-law does
Youtube – Do you mind? This is a family web site!
Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Simon Black and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.