Rival Sons

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Hailing from Long Beach, California, Rival Sons emerged at the close of the 2000s as the most authoritative and credible answer to classic hard rock's identity crisis. Led by the shamanic charisma of Jay Buchanan and the dazzling guitar work of Scott Holiday (the original line-up was rounded out by bassist Robin Everhart – replaced in 2013 by Dabe Beste – and drummer Mike Miley), they built a solid discography able to swing between garage-rock impetuousness and gospel solemnity, carrying the banner of the most visceral rock into the new millennium without ever making it feel like a dusty museum piece. It's not just a matter of Orange amps pushed to their limits or the bluesy mysticism oozing from their songs; it's, rather, their ability to rework the canon of the greats (Led Zeppelin above all) with a contemporary awareness, steering clear of sterile pastiche.

The self-produced debut “Before the Fire” (2009) is already a bullet of raw energy, but it's with the self-titled EP (2010) and especially with “Pressure & Time” (2011) that the world takes notice of them. The title track is a manifesto: a granite-hard riff that sounds like it came from a lost Jimmy Page session, paired with a rhythm section that pounds away with old-school elegance. This is rock'n'roll in its purest, most essential form.

Maturity arrives with “Head Down” (2012), on which the band expands its horizons toward psychedelia and introspective ballads (“Manifest Destiny” is a ride of rare intensity), but 2014 is the year of their definitive breakthrough: “Great Western Valkyrie” remains, to this day, their masterpiece. The sound grows darker and more magnetic, and Jay Buchanan emerges as one of the most gifted vocalists of his generation, at times even more "Plant-like" than Robert Plant himself. Tracks like “Electric Man” and “Open My Eyes” become instant classics, cementing Rival Sons as the true heirs to the throne once held by the great bands of the Seventies.

After the solid “Hollow Bones“ (2016), the band signed to a major label and released “Feral Roots” (2019), an album steeped in earth, woods and mysticism. It's a more layered work, where Dave Cobb's production (already the architect of their signature sound) reaches exemplary heights of clarity and power.

Thanks to “Feral Roots,” two prestigious Grammy Award nominations also followed, in the “Best Rock Album” and “Best Rock Performance” categories, the latter for the song “Too Bad.” Meanwhile, other bands have fallen in line (one above all: Greta Van FCleet) with the Rival Sons' modus operandi , cashing in on nostalgia for the Seventies and managing to monetize it far more successfully than Rival Sons themselves, despite having a decidedly less interesting back catalogue.

2023 marks another turning point for the California band, with the release of two mirror-image albums: “Darkfighter” (the darker of the two, exploring shadow zones, trauma and social tension with a cinematic touch) and “Lightbringer” (representing catharsis, a luminous resolution, closing a conceptual circle of rare ambition).

In February 2026 Jay Buchanan releases his excellent solo debut “Weapons Of Beauty“, with which he moves decisively away from his main band's muscular electricity to embrace a sound that's essential, restrained, intimate and measured, yet not without emphasis and cathartic surges. The result is a modern treatise on “Americana,” a blend of folk, soul, gospel, country and southern gothic. It's a mature work that isn't meant as a declaration of independence from Rival Sons (who, incidentally, are already at work on new material) but rather a chance to show an unprecedented and credible side of Buchanan as a writer of vulnerable yet immensely powerful songs.

In an age of sampled sounds and surgical perfection, Rival Sons have proven to be one of the few bands truly able to convey the heat of amp valves and the sweat of the stage, even on record. They're living proof that rock, when handled with respect and inventiveness, can still be pulsing, dangerous stuff.