Always Tyrants

These Days

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Genre: Hard Rock.
Released: 26/02/2021

Album Review: Always Tyrants – These Days

Always Tyrants are a Nebraskan hard rock outfit consisting of four childhood friends. The band formed back in 2015 and have been working tirelessly to bring out their debut album. ‘These Days’ marks the start of what I hope to be a long and successful adventure for the Nebraskan band.

The album starts with the title track ‘These days’. The hard rock sound in instantly recognisable however the guitar seems to be a bit too predominant in the mix. Almost drowning out the rest of the band at times which is an unfortunate start to what otherwise sounds like a solid song. Following on from that we are treated to ‘Humble Beginnings’. A much more mellow sounding song and the mix on this one sounds a lot better. a steady groove created by the drummer while the rest of the band flow down the beat in a very psychedelic way. A vast improvement over ‘These Days’.

Up next we have ‘Feeling Nostalgic’. Taking the psychedelic vibe to a whole new level, The song feels like you’re on one hell of a trip. A song that makes you want to sway from side to side while getting high in a field with your friends. musically the song sounds decent despite the distorted guitar still sounding too loud in the mix. Continuing down the trippy wave we get ‘Becoming (DMT Song)’. Finally, the guitar has been lowered in the mix and the band sound tight and together. The use of reverb throughout the song helps to create the trippy feel the band seem to be looking for. a decent song worth a listen or two.

‘Wrong Generation’ takes a more punky feel than the songs prior. An in your face drum beat throughout and a decent vocal display help to bring this song to life. Unfortunately, the song has a few noticeable skips in the beat where the editing hasn’t quite matched up. A real let down as the song itself sounds good but these few mistakes hurt the song too much in casual listening.

The penultimate song ‘Greed’ is an aggressive sounding tune. A solid intro followed by a decent chorus is somewhat spoiled again by timing issues later on in the song. Furthermore, the contrasting styles clash a bit too much for my liking making the song sound like it’s competing with itself constantly. Following on from that we find find ‘Dead Presidents’  Unsurprisingly the song suffers from minor timing issues with the track coming off-tempo on several occasions. An extremely repetitive song with little to be desired from it. A disappointing end to the album.

Overall Always Tyrants definitely have potential however the album is mixed poorly and quality control seems lacking, to say the least. When the first song has a major flaw that’s an instant red flag to many music lovers. A disappointing release that I hope the band can bounce back from. The band seem to be quite gifted musically and I hope they continue to learn and improve over the next few years.