
MASSIVE WAGONS
Earth To Grace (Earache)
A going concern for 15 years and now an established name on the New Wave Of Classic Rock scene, Lancaster quintet Massive Wagons have rightly earned themselves a huge grassroots following that has grown alongside their ambitions and successes over their time together. Earth To Grace – their seventh studio album, and fourth with Earache – is a mixed bag that won’t put off their fans but doesn’t match the consistency of 2022’s Triggered!.
Opener Sleep Forever is heavy on the Judas Priest/Iron Maiden vibes while Missing On TV is more attuned to the rest of the album’s approachable NWOCR sound. They sound best when selling their no-nonsense Lancashire-likely-lads persona on Free And Easy, which makes that song’s followup Night Skies sound all the more out of place. After a song stating it’s OK to be OK, it’s hard to take the emotionally searching lyrics at face value. And that’s all in the first four tracks! Confident but unclear.
words JOHN-PAUL DAVIES