Thief in the night – Under the influence

thief in the night - under the influenceThief in the night are a hard rock band from Los Angeles.  When I say “band” that’s a fairly loose term as there are only actually two members – Johnny Rossa on vocals and Chris Van Duyn on guitar, with the other two musicians appearing to be drafted in on more of a session basis.

“Under the influence” is an odd release – with just six songs and clocking in at 28 minutes it’s too short to be a full-blown album, but is a bit long to be an EP.  If I had to pick one I’d say it’s an EP – six songs simply isn’t enough to deserve the title of “album”.

It’s an interesting album – on the one hand you have some great heavy guitar riffs, and a metal vocal style, but on the other, the songs are fairly slow paced and isnt as heavy as it could have been.  They cite bands including Black Sabbath, Creed, Soundgarden, Metallica and Alter Bridge as influences, and at times the Black Sabbath influences are clear.

Brief comments on a few tracks

The album opens with “Chasing Utopia”.  It’s got some good heavy guitar work, and the vocals are certainly reminiscent of Soundgarden, so it’s a track that gets the EP off to a great start.

The title track, “Under the influence” is an instrumental with some really nice guitar work – it’s one of the better instrumental’s I’ve heard on an album recently and is a really strong track.

The closing track on the album , “Etude for Chelsea” is a short acoustic instrumental piece.  It’s a lovely piece of music and a nice end to the EP.

A nice touch is the packaging.  It’s a fold-out card sleeve with the lyrics and other text, while the CD itself is printed to look like an old vinyl record and looks great.

This is a good solid release.  Hopefully Thief in the night will follow this with a full-length album, and based on the quality of this release I’ve certainly got high expectations for their future releases.

Rating: 7.5/10

Thief in the night are:

Johnny Rossa – Vocals
Chris Van Duyn – Guitar
with guest musicians..
Randy Cooke – Drums
Rafael Moreira – Bass

Track listing:

1. Chasing Utopia
2. Breaking through (Out of the darkness)
3. Broken beyond repair
4. Under the influence
5. No one else
6. Etude for Chelsea

About Ant May

I spend half my life at gigs or festivals and the other half writing the reviews and editing photos, and somehow find time for a full time job too. Who needs sleep - I've got coffee.