Album Review: Late Night Flights – Jousthouse

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Late Night Flights

Jousthouse - Self Released

Minneapolis rockers Late Night Fights are a trio featuring Ryan ‘Guanz’ Guanzon, guitar and vocals, Shane ‘Train’ Peckham, bass, and Daniel ‘Sledgehammer’ Johnson, obviously the drummer, who self released their debut album, JoustHouse, earlier this month. This is a band that unashamedly draws heavily on it’s influences, these range from grunge and alternative to alt rock and post hardcore, which if nothing else guarantees that this will be a discordant and distorted debut. Jousthouse, delivers angst and melody that is more than a touch reminiscent of the Seattle grunge era, but it is delivered with a contemporary feel that keeps Late Night Flights from sounding like a complete anachronism.

Jousthouse kicks straight in with Nothing To Lose, this is a Queens Of The Stone Age influenced slice of alt rock that delivers a serious punch, it follows this up with three more heavy duty slabs of grunge infused guitar heavy rock, it’s not until you get to The Only One that they start to move away from the past, and stamp their own identity onto the album. The Only One heralded a change of direction, and after this the album moves into a somewhat a more melodic frame of mind with Ode To Owed, which acts a breakwater before the full tilt alt rock kicks back in for one last time with Break The Chains. This track signified the last rallying call as the album eases into a mellower, at least by Late Night Flights standards, end to the album that demonstrates they are by no means a one trick pony with a distortion pedal.

Jousthouse is an album that owes a hefty debt to nineties alt rock, it’s distorted riffs and gruff vocals vary across the album from the fist pumping and anthemic, to the dark and disaffected, at times the album veers so heavily into the territory of what came before it that it almost takes you back two decades. This is clearly an album that wears it’s influences on it’s sleeves, so much so that it verges on becoming somewhat derivative of the bands that inspired them, in particular Queens Of The Stone Age’s influence isn’t so much worn on the sleeve as tattooed into a sleeve. They manage to stay a step away from being a band that’s living in the past, but being only a step removed does mean that Late Night Flights stands in the shadow of grunge and alt rock, but if that’s an era that you treasure, then you may just have found your new favourite band.

Jousthouse can be pre-ordered via iTunes here and Amazon here