With guitar riffs that are straight out of Kasabian’s heaviest era, and vocals that bring to mind grunge’s greatest, The Blues Emergency’s ‘Quicksand’ is a hard-hitting stunner that left us -well, stunned, stunned, and thirsty for more.
Hovering somewhere between heavy, lo-fi, guitar-led alternative rock, and cutting-edge metal, The Blues Emergency is a Toronto-based band that is among those we can imagine as Led Zeppelin if Led Zeppelin were something for the 2020s. Indeed, with an undeniable, one-of-a-kind swagger, and a solid grasp over a terrific musicianship between the band members, The Blues Emergency easily delivers some of the most engaging, frenetic, and best-written hard rock I’ve heard for a good chunk of time.
‘Quicksand’, as its title suggests, deals with the volatility that plagues the lives of drug addicts, homeless people, and mental health victims, all of them much more prevalent in our societies nowadays. The band says the title is “..used as a metaphor for someone struggling with these issues as they sink deeper into an abyss of darkness with a feeling of no way out”. The music… well the music is heavy. Emir Halilovic’s stoner guitar riffs, with gritty distortion, go hand in hand with Andy du Rego’s hellbound howls, while a syncopated rhythm is kept under control via John Anthony Brand’s deep-hitting bass and Marshall Baglieri’s inventive drum part and terrific groove.
Ominous and dark, in music, words, and delivery, ‘Quicksand’ is a gritty and sludgy piece of rock music that will get your blood pumping with ease.
