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Night Horse: Sins Forgiven, Destruction Assured

Los Angeles-based double-guitar five-piece Night Horse treat classic rock like it’s a pretty lady. They take it out do a nice dinner, they hold the door, they pick up the tab, maybe they go to a show afterwards, and all the while they’re perfectly charming. Of course, sweet love is later made, and the end result is the band’s second album for Tee Pee Records, Perdition Hymns, which is 11 tracks of high-grade rock and roll genetics that, listening through, I’m honestly surprised didn’t come out on Small Stone. Where Tee Pee has mostly diverted into the heavy psych realm — bands like Quest for Fire, Naam, Earthless, etc. – Night Horse seem more suited to accompany the likes of Sasquatch, the recently-reviewed Red Giant, Gozu and perhaps most of all Sun Gods in Exile, whose 2009 album Black Light, White Lines, was equally shy about showing off its riff and solo prowess. And by that I mean not at all.

But there’s a Tee Pee connection in that Night Horse guitarist Justin Maranga also plays in Ancestors, so there you go, mystery solved. And honestly, after hearing the kind of blues-driven ‘70s jams Night Horse traffic in, I can’t imagine not wanting to put out a record like Perdition Hymns, no matter what sound you’re trying to associate your label with. Songs like the powerful opening trio of “Confess to Me,” “Angel Eyes” and “Rollin’ On” provide the kind of rock wallop you’d usually expect from an older bunch of dudes, but Night Horse’s love for what they do is evident. You can hear it in the playing of Maranga and fellow six-stringer Greg Buensuceso, in the straight-ahead rhythms of bassist Nick D’Itri and drummer Jamie Miller, and in the vocals of Sam James Velde, whose performance was also a highlight on Night Horse’s debut, The Dark Won’t Hide You, but is perhaps even stronger on Perdition Hymns, standing up with no trouble to the considerable instrumental competition provided by the band behind him.

“Goodbye Gone” keeps the über-catchy momentum going after the three initial cuts, and “Black Cloud” takes Perdition Hymns for a turn, with a Skynyrd-type organ/slide guitar ballad that turns out to be no less memorable than anything before it. “Goodbye Gone” sounded a bit thicker riff-wise than its predecessors, and “Come Down Halo” echoes that, but Night Horse are hardly dooming out. Perdition Hymns is a rock album all the way, and its lack of pretense of being anything else is but one of its charms. “Blizzard of Oblivion” is another upbeat track, something of a comedown nonetheless, but “Hard to Bear” changes up the approach structurally, has more of a build to it, and quickly revives the momentum. The album’s Side A/Side B track placement is evident in that each half of the record (as much as something with 11 parts can have equal halves) ends with a ballad, but closer “Same Old Blues” is more contemplative old-man rock and hungover regret than straight-up done-me-wrongism. Plus, before you get there, there’s the boogie-down “Shake Your Blues” and “Choose Your Side,” which isn’t much of a change from what Night Horse has been doing the whole time, but is a strong showing nonetheless, Velde’s work in the chorus being particularly noteworthy.

And if Night Horse built their album according to the rites of classic release formats, who could be surprised, since that’s also how they built the songs that make up the album? Perdition Hymns rocks, grooves, swaggers and wails according to a strict ethic of what rock and roll is and should be, and within that discipline, the band executes their sound as well as anyone else doing it today. The phrase “second to none” comes to mind, and where The Dark Won’t Hide You was a little keen on country boogie, Perdition Hymns has turned that into blues shuffle, which works even more to its benefit. At this point, Night Horse has two strong releases under their belt – one which put out the idea they knew what they were doing and one that confirmed it – and where they go from here is anyone’s best guess, but as they continue to develop their own musical personality, don’t be surprised if things get even better than they are now. As we all know, this kind of rock ages well.

Night Horse on MySpace

Tee Pee Records

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