Album Review: High Spirits - Hard To Stop

Certain approaches to music are a double-edged sword. If you are a band like High Spirits, who follow many of the traditions of early heavy metal as it transitioned away from hard rock, doing so means two things. First, you have a built-in audience who will like what you're doing. Second, you are putting yourself in comparison with every band over the last fifty years that have played the same style. By taking on a sound that is so well established and populated, the bar is set higher than if you were doing something that only you could be known for. Familiarity breeds comfort, but it also breeds contempt.

When the record opens with "Since You've Been Gone", we're immediately hit by the band's high energy sound and classic 70s rock meets 80s metal aesthetic. They make fun music that has simple hooks to pump your first along with. That title is rather revealing, though, since the song does have a little bit in common with Rainbow's classic of the same name, and that very style is exactly the comparison High Spirits both wants and wants to avoid.

The post-Dio version of Rainbow is the sweet spot High Spirits is aiming for. The guitars aren't as classical as Blackmore would sometimes get, but they have the same growl that makes the anthemic choruses sound powerful. And given that Rainbow quickly fell from their heights once they started down this road, High Spirits maintaining their quality is a win in my book. We get some music that sounds classic, but doesn't come with the disappointment attached to it that those latter-day Rainbow records carried.

Over the course of nine songs, the band delivers us the kind of experience Slough Feg has always been trying to, but always fails to achieve. This music is simple, fun, and a good time. I know how that sounds, but I mean it as a compliment. There's nothing wrong with wanting to have some fun and entertain people. Not everything needs to be high art, nor challenging conventions. High Spirits is supposed to be a good time band, and they deliver on that promise time and time again.

There isn't a lot more to say than that, even though it's my job to do so. You know what this kind of music sounds like, and you know whether or not you like it. The only question is whether High Spirits is doing it well enough to justify giving this album a listen. I can answer that unequivocally; yes. If you're a fan of old hard rock and early heavy metal, this is absolutely a record you're going to like. High Spirits is the right kind of throwback.