HAVE A DRINK WITH DREADNAUGHT

Dreadnaught may not be known by many of you, but they've been recording together since 1998, over 15 years and counting. Formed by the trio Rick Habib (drums), Bob Lord (bass and vocals) and Justin Walton (guitars and vocals) Dreadnaught was absent from recording their own music for quite some time but they are now back with the EP Have A Drink With Dreadnaught (2013).

It's quite impossible to point a finger to where the band is going or what style exactly they play, but that's precisely what they wanted and you can see it with their official statement: 'What is the point of doing what has already been done? We'll leave that to the other folks.' And this pretty much explains everything. When it comes to Have A Drink With Dreadnaught (2013) it is no different, 5 tracks' 5 different songs!

The opener of the disc 'Corrupticus 5' is a country-like-Americana-at-heart song that is also organ driven, quite something. The instrumental 'Surface Raid' is completely weird with Disco orchestral kind of synthesizers and its great guitars. A very good mess.

Then, when one might think that they have listened to enough weird music and they will now follow some pattern 'The Bear' comes along with some latin influence, double vocals and the most twisted riff/interludes ever. And yet the track is catchy and singable. 'JPF' reminded me of the band Pilot with its double riffed Pop guitars. And yes, 'JPF' is more of a Pop song, the 70's kind of well-crafted Pop. That was a time where every song had a meticulous arrangement including the Pop scene and Dreadnaught knows that and went for it with intelligence. Great track! To finish Have A Drink With Dreadnaught (2013) we have the track 'Trophy Bride' that brings a great bass line and a wall of good guitars. It is a danceable song with lots of stuff happening on the background.

Even though Dreadnaught is not a Progressive band by standard rules you can't put them aside exactly because of that! They have no rules and they want to keep progressing, no matter the way.

Have A Drink With Dreadnaught (2013) is 5 different bands in the same disc but with unity. Weird, interesting and charged with amazing musicianship. Too bad Have A Drink With Dreadnaught (2013) comes only in a cardboard envelope with no info whatsoever about the band or the recordings.

A great EP for the curious minds that will not settle with only one genre of music. Waiting for their next full-length album now!

(Originally posted on progshine.net)

Groovin' the prog rock!

2013 had a lot of great music no doubt about it, but it also included a return to form by one of my most beloved bands in this genre and overall in the archives. It's been 7 years since Dreadnaught released any music to the world but like many cases it was worth the wait. The band released 4 studio albums to this day and are now currently working on a new album/project called Hard Chargin', So what we have now is a quick taste from that project which is supposed to be a full lenth album. This album sounds very mature and confident, it looks like Dreadnaught has found their own niche and feels very comfortable there, it doesn't mean they're releasing the same album over and over again, far from it, they just can do what ever crosses their mind and it works. I mean who the hell can mix country, funk and prog rock?? Well apparently it can be done.

This EP shows Dreadnaught still got it. They are in perfect shape, the playing is tight and accurate as hell and the writing is still very interesting and a lot of fun. Their last album "Musica En Flagrante" showed a creative peak in songwriting while incorporating more acoustic instruments and some evident keyboards resulting in one of the most eclectic albums out there, while sharing the spot light with their session musicians. This time it seems the band is focusing on getting back to their early days, where bass, guitar and drums are dominating the sound, there's still other instruments involved like violins and saxophone, but they contribute to making a bigger and more eclectic sound and not focusing on solos or interplays. It sounds to me like the band is looking at their early years and paying their selves a little tribute, only this time it is done better and it's much more progressive. The music still has that southern US country feel (please don't stop reading), very complex, sophisticated and very progressive, following their distinctive ultra crispy sound. When it comes to mixing groove/funk and prog rock these guys are the masters, the songs benefit from gazillion ideas, evolving from one to the next so easily that you can play it on mainstream radio and no one would notice. Guitar player Justin Walton is no less than a genius in my book, his quirky, groovy runs are unparalleled, he throws all kinds of odd balls and is very diverse in his playing and his ideas, easily one of my favorite guitar players ever. Bassist Bob Lord doesn't take the back seat when it comes to bass players, he's as groovy as his pal and together they are a real force. Rick Habib is handling the task very easily, but what's with that weird snare sound??? I still haven't figured that one out.

I must confess that at first I thought this EP is just good and nothing more, but as the case with so many albums, the picture got clearer with every spin. I guess I just thought they would take a different road, closer to "Musica En Flagrante", but of course I have no trouble with what we have here. "Corrupticus 5" is a country flavoured tune where Justin Walton is the main star here, delivering some brilliant guitars, just pay attention to everything he does, this is really unique and highly eclectic. "Surface Raid" is a rocking instrumental using violin sound in the main theme, it's a stable ground for the band to break wild, very good stuff. "The Bear" is.....what is that?? would that work in a circus?? it's short, fast, zany, complex and has too many ideas for a 3 minute song (I mean that in a good way). "JPF" has some very cool bass playing from Lord, great song overall. "Trophy Bride" is outstanding!! begining with thee coolest guitar mini solo ever on top of some groovy bass line, again very complex and progressive, cramming so many ideas in one song.

So if you like some groove and humor, where music is on the fun side but still maintaining clear prog influences, (think of a progier Phish maybe) check out this album or band. It's actually very hard describing everything that goes on in here so it's better to have a listen, the album is currently available on their bandcamp page. This is essential Dreadnaught, and yes I'm a fan boy! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!