The Loving Tongue - Distant Dreams
Flashback time. Acid Rock! Elements of Doom and Stoner Rock, yes there is a huge difference in those styles, and heavy metal with a little blues rock thrown in too.
The Loving Tongue are a group whose time came and went with the 70's but i like it!
Good to hear some guys cranking out respectable classic rock with recently modern and current modern music and production techniques thrown in.

The album opens with an Eastern music influenced dirge like chant and then falls into a blazing progrock burner with "Going Crazy". Why Did You Cry Tonight. falls short but isn't bad. Queen Of The Night gets back to business with another progged out track mixed with a Deep Purple verse and Chorus.

Loving ways Today takes the pace down with a nice slow early Blackmore's Rainbow style tune that is really nice.
Crying For My Woman takes onto the band's acoustic rock but upbeat Zepplin flavored song. Very Nice indeed. Influences are abound on this album and they do everyone justice without sounding like blatant ripoffs!

Let's hit Evil In The Sky of the first CD. Tony Iommi and Sabbath in full effect here! Really good. The drummer even does those crazy odd time patterns and drum fills like Sabbath. This will having you banging the head!
Lady In Black takes a different turn and we get to hear some double bass drumming underneath a perculating Doom riff. Again it's a Sabbath type Doom but they throw in some speed that Sabbath never really did. Catchy melodies and head bobbing madness and the flute that pops in for a melodic romp here and there sounds good! They blend some Celtic sounds in this one but it always stays heavy!

Let me take you through CD#2 real quick.
King Of The Darkest Night starts off with a brooding keyboard pad and guitar wankering in the background as the singer starts a build up vocal that brings the song to it's exciting conclusion...this is more of a intro to the second disc....the drums never come in until Lost Princess starts. Lost Princess is a late rainbow keyboard infected tune that reminds of Joe Lynn Turner era Rainbow! Somebody is a Ritchie Blackmore fan! hehe

Sacred Winds is an Aboriginal chant from the band's home of Australia complete with percussion tom tom patterns and some keys in the background and an acid rock/psychedelic guitar wanging in the background. Quite mesmerizing!

Indian Chief finds us back in rock riff territory but with a tom tom pattern pumping out an Indian rhythm for this American Indian tale. The guitar is heavy but the production for some reason is not as good as the rest of the album...very thin but the song is still good.

Death chuggs from the beginning with probably the heaviest riff of the album and an introduction to the growling vocal that appears only on this track. More Sabbath and grungy doom here. A midpaced scorcher that satifies my neck's urge to bang! haha

Warriors Of Enchantment is a psychedlic weirdness that introduces the next track...some spoken word poetry here...kinda weird but is fitting with the rest of the album...think Jim Morrison of The Doors doing his poetry thing and you get the idea.

Lady Of The Sea finds the band going into a Doors kinda soft perculating rhythm. Soft and nice but this here is a long one. Times in at 13:48 and is a buildup to climax to drop off styled instrumental that will have you going "hell yeah, this guy can play some damn guitar man!" The whole band really shines on this one.

Finally the 2Cd closer is Soft Lonely Love, a poetry style song again. Starts off with spoken voice then to a delayed repeating chant vocal at which this monster just ends... pretty quickly!

Ok so this is huge album but doesn't feel long. There is so much variety here you don't get bored easily. My only qualm is Why Did You Cry Tonight from Disc 1. Weakest song on an album with no weak songs.
Classic rock fans rejoice because this band is as close as you can get without time traveling back to the best of the late 60' and early 70's.

3 Guys responsible for this madness. Honey Boy Jim, Big Tom and Paul Deeble. Along with some help from a few guest musicians for the recording.
They have a nice website with the song lyrics and some descriptions of the songs as well as a nice bio to read about them. check out this link to listen and buy of youd like!

Written by David
Friday, November 14, 2003
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Ratings

David: 7.5/10

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Review by David
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Released by
Big Ton´s Records - 2003

Tracklisting
CD#1:
1)Universal Love.
2)Going Crazy.
3)Why Did You Cry Tonight.
4)Queen Of The Night.
5)Loving ways Today.
6)Crying For My Woman.
7)Evil In The Sky.
8)Lady In Black.

CD#2:
1)King Of The Darkest Night.
2)Lost Princess.
3)Sacred Winds.
4)Indian Chief.
5)Death.
6)Warriors Of Enchantment.
7)Lady Of The Sea.
8)Soft Lonely Love.


Style
Psychedelic Rock

Related links
Visit the band page

The Loving Tongue - Official Website

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Ratings
1 - Horrifying
2 - Terrible
3 - Bad
4 - Below average
5 - Average
6 - Good
7 - Very good
8 - Outstanding
9 - Genius
10 - Masterpiece
666 - Unrated

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