Review: Cherry Bloom - Open and Die

 It's common knowledge that whenever someone says "Without trying to sound bitter...", they're incredibly bitter about something, so I've been making an effort to avoid issuing such a statement about the ongoing Reading & Leeds festival by looking for some new music that isn't having a blat at the festival grounds. It's not an easy task. It really isn't. So instead, let's look to Paris for some inspiration of different bands to look at and check out Open and Die the new album from Cherry Bloom, with which they prove themselves to be France's answer to [Any two piece rock and roll band performing at Reading & Leeds.] Great.

 At first reflection, it's difficult to comprehend that such musical genius has come from the minds of two people. Across Open and Die, Octave Zangs and Julien Jourdan have made an album that has everything that ticks all the boxes for an rock and roll must have effortlessly.

 They've certainly created a must have if you like to have fat riffs delivered in a more blistering kind of way and Zangs does the job just right, delivering crunching metallic guitar strokes across Blood Rights, Sick Rabbit and the groove infested Lovely Deer, that can appeal to those that like their stoner rock and their hard rock with a more polished gleam as well, which is never an easy task to achieve, but with the right balance of slick thrashing and power through dirty distortion, the essence of modern rock and roll is summed up effectively. And in this creation of the basis for rock and roll in this modern age, Zangs manages to do his own thing with writing melodies and open up a vast gateway to funk influences, as Breaking Down and Flying Over are filled with sweet rhythms that just make you want to move your feet along with your head.

 Zangs is only complimented by the powerhouse drumming that Jourdan has on offer. There's little more exciting than the opportunities to hear his blasting solos on Get By and the pounding that opens the atmospheric intro of The Everlasting Movement of the Red River. The drumming is of purely beastly proportions that proves just how untamed and let loose Cherry Bloom really manage to be, which creates utter epic-ness.

 So, in many was, it's interesting how they manage to balance out such unrelenting wildness with a truly gripping ability to paint an absorbing soundscape that they play amongst. Fall of a Dead Whale and Red River sound purely desolate with psychedelic melodies and the haunting harmonies between Zangs and Jourdan. That they manage to fit such a tone that brings up feelings of emptiness into something that is so musically full is beyond breathtaking.

 If it's everything in rock and roll that you're looking for, you know that the new wave of cool laid back rock and roll duos have the works for the job and Cherry Bloom are no exception, as they prove with Open and Die, giving the best of fast desert rock riffs, garage rock melodies and psychedelic backdrops, all in a tone that is their very own. So, as a lover of rock and roll, I think I've gained a new favourite new album for total rock and roll. Seriously, was France ever this good a place for good riffs? Is it the only place to find good riffs right now that isn't at Reading or Leeds? I become less ignorant with each new song.

Cherry Bloom's Open and Die is out now via Cherry Bloom.