Sounding more spacey than the coastal open air of hometown Virginia Beach, Freedom Hawk follow up their EP Universal with Sunlight, a far reaching and far more epic collection of material. What’s familiar is the slow hard charge and thunderous metal groove of before. What’s new is the different shape and color of it all. What resounds with Sunlight is that the band’s sound continually moves forward, harboring a distinctive vibe while steadily refining it. Where many bands will find a sound and harvest it to death, Freedom Hawk play it unsafe, pushing forward stylistically and by design.
Born from similar timbre as Black Sabbath, Zeppelin and Fu Manchu, Freedom Hawk wedges in psychedelia with groove heavy rock and roll. The band knows how to shake ground and be thunderous but also when to ease back, to wallow in the groove, the funk, the palatial sweep of shapely and echoing guitar riffs.
Sunlight transcends the genre, offering more than simply metal for the masses or the skate, surf and stoner crowd. There’s no further proof than ‘Going Down’, a sultry, sexy slow groove that boasts fuzzed out guitar, gentle beats and T.R. Morton’s vocals seemingly coming from another dimension. The track is a complete surprise, buried beneath the entire swagger and power found on Sunlight.
Just as the album opens with the roaring aesthetics of ‘Executioner’ and ‘Land of the Lost’ they dial back for the noodling and Santana-esque vibe on the drop-heavy ‘Stand Back’. It’s a meditation to some degree, a pause before the storm given its followed ‘Lightning Charge’. With ‘Palomino’ it’s about getting down to business with full force and ‘Grab a Hold’ gets old school.
Like sitting on the ocean floor looking up or floating down from sky, the band crafts a large, hefty canvas. Freedom Hawk paints with waves of sound, ethereal vocal atmosphere and an army of backbeats. Sunlight is an eclectic and heavy ride.
Brian/Bootleg Magazine
