Yay, I get to review a track produced and engineered by my buddy Zorran Mendonsa! The lovely chap who, back in the day, took control of the mixing desk for one of the bands on the label I ran. He was excellent then; I see he’s not lost an iota of his touch or ear for a massive sound.

Black Gravel City bring forth Sink Or Swim, their new single, and it is indeed a massive song. Ian, Kerry and Thomas have constructed an anthemic blast of sound that I thoroughly enjoyed and was very impressed with in literally every sense. This is Metal at its most intuitive and artistic. A monster riff creates a menacing air over an extremely tight rhythm section consisting of drums that provide several changes of form through the song, crunching its staccato way and driving the feel of the song nicely; and a bass that comes from the depths of Gehenna or somewhere else where the naughty people go to get slapped wrists for their sins and to listen to the best music. Together the rhythm section is as tight as can be, and noticeably so with the form changes as they could have fallen into the trap of sounding like changes for changes sake – but with such a smooth and aligned pairing it flows and adds to the deliberately discordant message coming from other areas of the song.

A fabulous Metal Roar vocal is countered with an unexpectedly melodic tenor, itself sneakily backed by a lower volume roar as a BV/layered lead vocal. Very clever, whether it was the band’s idea or Zorran, as it draws the vocal back towards the max decibels of the roaring chorus. The melodic vocal part is well placed, by the way, and itself is powerful and compelling. It actually put me a wee bit in mind of the late, great legendary Ronnie James Dio for its timbre. Just for term of reference regarding power and texture, I mean.

We have some wicked lead guitar that gives you some note picking and a whole lot of sonic chord work, really working the neck of the guitar. I think I caught some cool hammer-ons adding to a tense, controlled rage aura to the instrument. The composition for this instrument is outstanding.

This song has been very well thought-out and the execution across the board – metaphorically in the case of the band and literally in the case of Zorran – has made this very much a stand-out single. If you’re into Metal, you really do need to give this track a listen. It has to be aired daily on the Rock, plus it needs to get overseas. Poland, Finland, Portugal, the Baltic States, Chile, Brazil, these are all places that love this stuff. I would love them to put out a promo vid for this one.

My first listen to Black Gravel City, and I’m a convert. This is seriously bloody good. It’s out now, on the Spotty Fly, so go find it. You’ll see what I mean.