Tier – Dawner
Self-released – 2022
Rock, Hard, Stoner, Seventies, Blues, Southern
Rated: ****
There I was on the final day of the 2023, Freak Valley Festival. A blistering hot sun above, a cool beer in my hand, waiting for the next band to begin. Suddenly a tug at my shirt, my Doom Charts Contributors shirt, provided by Doktor420. A dude, who as it turns out, I am connected to on the internet, had promised a friend’s band that he would give a CD to a possible journalist, blogger or record company dude if he could find one on the Festival. Well, I turned out to be the lucky bastard to receive the final copy of the Dawner album by German three-piece TIER. A band that had been promoted by Mel Lie to the Doom Charts Contributors early May of 2023, right before I went on holiday. It therefor did not register as well, but a tug on the shirt and a cool little chat with a dude on the festival, sure did. Dawner was recorded in 2022, but the band only recently made it available on bandcamp and then went out to try and get some attention for it. And we can only state with a certain aplomb that Dawner deserves to be heard by many. Starting off the seven-track album with a proper anthem, Hang ‘Em Up, sports this bluesy, southern, americana, seventies and severely groovy vibe. It’s a prelude to all that great, mostly mid-tempo hardrock, where you can just feel that high riding, fun finding energy the three must have had during the writing and recording of this little nugget. Second track Sober, cements that attitude and energy before we get treated to something that feels even more swampy and almost derailed. Indeed, third track Queen of The Bayou, has these highly melodic moments, these soulful episodes, and these granular parts; all expertly colored in with blues and southern touches and then made steaming hot by excellent guitar work and a wild solo included. But underneath, is the narrative by a bass that sounds as cool as can be, velvet smooth, yet also intensely choppy. Dis-a-pear is this fun, boozy rough little rocker, with a refrain that will surely be yelled along with by everyone during a TIER live gig. And that bass work, once again, pristine! Even more Americana, Southern and Western touches can be heard on their fifth track Bad Blood. Bluesy by default, Bad Blood, never follows the tracks of the purists, in fact it implores so much dosed beauty, the fire that you will feel simmering in your belly will have to wait till the final minutes before it finally gets to explode. Much rougher and gruffer is their ode to the Hashtrain. Definitely four and a half minutes of fun ruckus, (they of course should have somehow cut out seven seconds) which still retains that blues and soul you were treated to on the first five tracks. Coo-coo-ca-choo! Even more soulful and bluesy perhaps is the final track Execution Song. Ghostly good guitar work, invoking spirits of yore, harmonies that seem to have been travelling through time and all so perfectly executed that it never sound dated. In fact, the entire Dawner album is not just steeped in tradition, it invigorates it and proves there will always be a new morning this kind of good and heavy rock!
(Written by JK)
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