There’s a point where riffs stop sounding like you’re trying and start sounding like you just are.
Solar Sons hit that somewhere along the line. You can hear it all over Altitude, their sixth record, tracked fast in some cold room called Nameless City Sound. Eight days. Probably smelled of coffee and warm valve amps. You can hear the air moving – fuzz bleeding into the kick drum, someone laughing off-mic, that human mess every good rock album needs.
They’ve always sat awkwardly in the scene. Too tuneful for doom, too riff-drunk for prog, too damn happy for sludge. But that’s the fun of it. They sound like themselves. Altitude doesn’t bother finding a slot on the shelf. It just is – heavy rock, full stop. Groove first, guts second, melody whenever it wants. A touch of Sabbath if you squint, a whiff of ‘90s alt metal sunshine, a drift of psych that somehow smells of salt air instead of sand.
Rory Lee holds it together. Fat bass tone, a bit rough round the edges, carries the whole thing like a friendly shoulder shove. His voice – same deal. Not higher, just freer. Like he finally remembered he could sing for the joy of it. Danny (his brother) keeps throwing out riffs that feel both lazy and deadly, and his solos? More like side roads than showcases. Pete Garrow, behind the kit, plays like he’s breathing the songs instead of counting them. Loose wrists, big shoulders, proper swing.
A band that still likes each other, still likes playing loud. You can hear it. This isn’t the “we suffer for art” thing. It’s mates in a room, sharing air, riding the same wave. Every crash, every fill, feels like a small victory.
It runs about forty-odd minutes. Doesn’t feel like it. Plays like a single thought stretched over a side of wax. Flip it, beer in hand, “side B” starts climbing again – that’s the good bit. The sequencing makes sense in your bones.
Everything about Altitude feels stubbornly human. No polish, no fake grit either. Just tape hiss, real sweat, and a lot of trust. It’s the sound of people still chasing that first spark they found ages ago in some basement in Dundee. A good one!
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Released by Argonauta Records on October 24, 2025
Music source for review – Grand Sounds PR
