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Halfway To Gone is somewhere between a metal Lynyrd Skynyrd and a countrified AC/DC. If you like your Southern Rock fueled with Appalachian moonshine and dirt weed, welcome home.After the first track, the piledriving "Holiday in Altamont" I had to stop the CD player. The voice behind HTG sounded JUST LIKE that dude from Solarized, Solarized being one of my early favorite stoner bands. Imagine me feeling like a douche when I found out it WAS that dude from Solarized (the immensely talented Lou Gorra) but that he split from the former to put together Halfway To Gone. Sheesh. I thought I had my finger on the pulse of the scene... It would be DOA and I would never know...
The HTG sound is dirty riffs and tight beats. Hard rock inspired by abuse of both legan and illegal substances, heartache, and truckstops. All of the tunes encompassing "High Five" are top-shelf dirty Southern Rock, (outta New Jersey no less!), with the exception of "Kind Words for the Southern Gentlemen" which is kinda funny the first time, but becomes the longest 2 minutes 49 seconds on record on each repeated listen. Ex-Solarized touring guitarist Lee Stuart does a great job on some punchy riffs, and works a mean slide and acoustic (hear the great "Blues for Burnt Fly Bogg" for reference). The aforementioned Lou Gorra sounds like he was bred from a mere hillbilly lad to front a sleazy Southern Rock band, and ex-Sixty Watt Shaman drummer Chuck Dukehart ... erm... drums. What the fuck else are they supposed to do? I could put "Ex Sixty Watt Shaman SKIN BANGER" or something like that, but then I would sound like a writer from Kerrang! or something. He's a good drummer, OK? FU.
In a nice neat nutshell, some good ol' fashioned Southern Rock with a metal tinge and Lou Gorra's amazing vox. A great listen. Track 10, "Stingin'" should be the soundtrack of jealous lovers everywhere. A 7 out of 10 on the Molly Hatchet World Tour 2001 hair-weave scale.
Chris Barnes
May, 2001
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