`Focus` is the fifth album from Memphis, Tennessee heavy blues, and rock powerhouse THE HEAVY EYES and comes six years after their last offering. The quartet of Tripp Shumake (guitar/vocals), Matthew Qualls (guitar), Wally Anderson (bass), and Eric Garcia (drums) have been tagged as psychedelic blues rock from the delta that sounds similar to a skeleton driving a speed boat on a flaming Mississippi River headed back to 1969.
The album opens with `That Cold Goliath` and although the name encapsulates themes of struggle, survival, and the challenges faced by individuals or groups in unfamiliar territories, here it appears to concern somebody who has seemingly deceived the narrator romantically. The accompanying harmonised chants give the number a strange work song like vibe. We enjoy a much more stoner trippy texture with `Concrete Halloween` which drives along with the threatening or questioning line of ” Did you come to fight or did you come to die.” The pace eases up in the last minute before racing off into the ether.
`It`s All Simone` has a delightful deep bass resonance and morphs into a heavy nigh on psychedelic offering with some fairly surreal lyrics shared on route with some blistering guitar riffs thrown in for good measure. A quick net search confirmed that the title of `Sarissa` was a long, heavy pike measuring 13 to 23 feet (4 to 7 meters) used by the ancient Macedonian infantry. Introduced by King Philip II, it allowed soldiers to attack enemies from a distance and was the signature weapon of Alexander the Great’s conquering armies. But here it’s a fuzzy trippy ride with vocals that are shared in that kind of half-arsed Jim Morisson manner.
I`m not a big film buff but found that `Corporal Upham` appears in Saving Private Ryan and Corporal Timothy Upham is the squad’s civilian conscience dropped into a world that runs on fear, habit, and survival. The number has an underlying grunginess and lyrics that are gentle and tenderly shared. There a real stop start fuzzy texture with percussive clicks on `Troublesome Priest` which again has that work song communal sing along feel.
I thought that `Focus` had a real Queens of The Stone Age vibe going on with its chugging driving rhythm that really draws you in. There`s a kind of time out midway with some slower riff tones but it returns to its original path for the last twenty seconds or so. There`s an almost hypnotic ambience to `Greener` a reflective musing that expands on the idiom of “The grass is always greener on the other side”.
`Words` has an almost buzzsaw riff running through it and is again another thoughtful musing on a variety of subjects. We kind of return to the previous opening cut with `That Cold Goliath (Might Return)` which here is initially quite remote and echoey before manning up and become heavily riff laden with much more assertive vocals.
The final submission `Holy Envy` may refer to the term coined by Lutheran bishop and biblical scholar Krister Stendahl. It describes the sacred practice of admiring aspects of another person’s faith or belief system so deeply that you wish those elements could be reflected in your own tradition. The composition itself is a fairly dreamy instrumental which does have a questioning or searching air to it.
There was so much to enjoy on `Focus` which was a delightful ride with some heavy riffs, pounding drums, throbbing bass lines that guided us along some really psychedelic journeys but also have some more thoughtful absorbing numbers that really enticed you in.
The band are closing out a brief soiree in Europe to promote this release and we can only hope that they head back again real soon, in the meantime at least we have something to `Focus` on.
Rating 8.5/10
