Album Review: Monster Truck - Furiosity

Furioisty might be Monster Truck's debut full-length album, but they sound like a band who've been bringing the rock for decades. This is a throwback to hard-living, beer-soaked, balls-out rock'n'roll that sounds familiar in all the right ways. Even though it's all their own music, Monster Truck sounds like a cover band playing at your local pub on a Friday night. But a really good cover band that always plays the perfect set.

Songs like Old Train and Power Of The People are all swagger and testosterone. There's no pretension here; you can feel the upbeat, positive vibes of a band playing for their own entertainment as much as for the audience. Psychics unleashes the power of the Hammond organ, an instrument that doesn't get used nearly enough in modern rock, while Sweet Mountain River is overflowing with the kind of crunching guitars, big vocals and thundering drums that you know would have a crowd foaming at the mouth live. Things slow down (a little), but lose none of their impact on the soaring power ballad, My Love Is True, and the contemplative For The Sun.

In a world of skinny jeans and poppy androgyny, it's almost novel to hear a band that's so unashamedly a sausage fest of pure man rock. Imagine The Darkness or Airbourne, but with none of the knowing winks or self-aware irony. Monster Truck is an unapologetic powerhouse of the old school and Furiosity is an unapologetic powerhouse of an album that will remind you how fun music can be when a band worries less about being important and more about the rock.