Altsounds Sessions: Stone Gods [Nov 2008]

Acoustic versions of "Don't Drink The Water" and "Magdeline"

January 29, 2009, 10:05 PM

Views: 1017   Comments: 0

When the rollercoaster ride that was The Darkness came to an abrupt and messy end with the departure of Justin Hawkins, the remaining members of the band were staring premature retirement in the face. But when rock ‘n’ roll courses through your veins, surrender is never an option, and so less than an hour after their erstwhile singer jumped ship, plans were already afoot to get the show back on the road.

“The whole thing had fallen apart,” says former bassist and Stone Gods’ singer/guitarist Richie Edwards. “I got the phone call from Justin and I thought ‘that’s it’, but half an hour later Dan rang me and said, ‘Rich, do you fancy doing a bit of singing?’ We got together and started writing and it’s snowballed from there.”

An entirely tougher, edgier and heavier beast than their former band, the arrival of Stone Gods represents a scintillating new dawn for British rock music. Fronted by Richie Edwards, whose powerful voice resonates with four decades of classic rock gusto, and with Dan Hawkins assuming lead guitar duties, former Graham Coxon alumnus Toby MacFarlaine on bass guitar and Robin Goodridge hammering the skins, these road-ravaged pros have spent the last year slaving away over hot guitars, carefully crafting the songs that comprised their debut album titled “Silver spoons and broken bones”. A dazzling and diverse mixture of crunching heavy metal anthems, irresistible radio-rock and sumptuous, ballsy ballads; it’s a glorious celebration of everything that makes loud, blaring rock ‘n’ roll so reliably exhilarating.


During November of 2008 the Stone Gods boys were doing an arena tour of the UK in support of their album "Silver Spoons and Broken Bones". They came by and spent an afternoon with me in the studio where we had a great time talking about all sorts of things from what the worlds hardest band is all the way to [believe it or not] the X-Factor. While they were here they also did a full band acoustic session comprising two song "Don't Drink The Water" and "Magdeline". Drums, two guitars, vocals backing vocals and bass make for an amazing Stone Gods acoustic performance that shows that Stone Gods really are a force to be reckoned with and rock just as hard acoustically as they do at a full gig.


All songs were recorded live and were Produced, Mixed and Mastered by Chris Maguire (www.helloiamchris.com). If this Altsounds Session is anything to go by, then the future looks bright for Stone Gods.

This audio is part of what will eventually become an Altsounds.com Sessions Video feature which includes a video interview with the Stone Gods guys. Once this is complete, the video will be posted here. Keep your eyes and ears peeled.

#1 | Subscribe | Send to Friend | Print | Discipline | Report