HALFWAY TO GONE (Second Season) CD
I never cared much about the older stuff of New Jersey's HALFWAY TO GONE, but with the new album "Second Season" things changed. Not every of the eleven tracks is a burner, but due to the varied material here it's an album you can listen to without skipping from one track to the next. A few heavy up-tempo rock'n'roll songs ("Already Gone" or "Escape from Earth"), but there's also enough time for instrumental and mellow, psychedelic tunes like "Black Coffy" or " Tryptophan". "Outta Smokes" sounds like an old traditional blues standard and "Never Comin' Home" is a perfect example for doom-laden heavy Southern stuff. But not only there HALFWAY TO GONE have captured this Southern vibe, it lays over the whole album. And the last hidden track is like a confession to this vibe. It isn't mentioned inside the booklet, but it totally sounds like a cover-version of old Allman Brothers song. Another excellent song is the mid-tempo crusher "Lone Star Breakout", where the boys are proving their good taste for crunchy and heavy riffs. "Second Season" is a solid and hard-rocking album, nothing spectacular but good enough to survive in these times of average mass-releases. You can get this album directly from Small Stone Recordings or ask your favourite record-dealer for it.
(KK)