By Albert Mansour

Serpent Throne’s sophomore record The Battle of Old Crow is a great second effort. This Philadelphia-based doom metal/stoner rock outfit started off in 2005 as a totally instrumental band with an eye towards the past and if you’re a fan of early 70′s style metal and rock, this album ranges from bluesy metal to psychedelic rock,coming across like a mixture of early Budgie, classic Judas Priest, Wishbone Ash in their prime and the formative years of  Black Sabbath . The band plays a brand of hard rock that harkens back to the golden age of heavy riffs and tasty solos and just to be clear, there is no pretense with Serpent Throne. These guys bring the rock and announce themselves with killer riffs and well placed guitar solos. Tracks like “Snakecharmer” and “Rock Formation” are calibrated for maximum epic impact, true journeys in heaviness that end up on the mountaintop where rock gods dwell and mystic visions abound. Recorded & mixed by Mick Mullin (HIGH ON FIRE, ZODIAK, TOTAL FUCKING DESTRUCTION) at Super 8 studios, if you like the sound of Priest’s earlier works a la Rocka Rolla and Sad Wings Of Destiny as well as Lucifer’s Friend’s debutalbum and early Deep Purple then I highly recommended searching this one out.

http://www.myspace.com/serpentthrone

(Vessel Records)