Kindred Saint debut album review
Released through: Buck 15 Publishing (BMI) Release date: Available now
Kindred Saint basically is a family affair, featuring the father and two son team of the Pawlak's and boy do these guys have some talent!
Don't misunderstand that though, as this is no Hanson, no Partridge family, no way!
These guys are a serious rockin’ family unit!
The mastermind behind this release is father Dennis Pawlak, who’s behind most of the lyrics and music and takes on shared lead guitar duties, bass, as well as lead and backing vocals.
Jason Pawlak – Known to some as Jace – also shares lead vocal duties, as well as keyboards, drums and more backing vocals.
Trevor Pawlak rounds things off musically on lead and rhythm guitars, as well as backing vocals.
Additional backing vocals here are shared by Jan Pawlak and Marta Wit.
While this is clearly a self financed project, it’s really very good stuff. Worth checking out, but read on and see what you make of this.
Starting with the out and out rocker ‘Let the Music Roll’ Kindred Saint have really put together some big wall of sound here for sure. A nice big up tempo number.
Once ‘Sinister Lady’ really gets into its groove it’s possibly the heaviest, dirtiest track here, but then by the time the chorus kicks in, with the big multi vocal backing, it still retains melody and harmony.
OK, possibly one of the most clichéd tracks on here is ‘Am I The One,’ but it’s excellent and has a huge sound and I really love it!
Big melodic multi-layered intro ala say Skid Row’s '18 and Life,’ but it’s so much more than that without doubt and with two lead vocalists in the family and additional backing vocalists, make for a nice sound here.
‘Ain’t it a Sin’ next seems to be more of a fun romp that almost brings Molly Hatchet to mind, yes really.
Some really catchy if dirty riffs drive the song along and then when it hits the bridge it takes a different direction that almost brings so many other influences to mind and then it gets back into that great southern boogie type style. Good stuff!
With next track, ‘Shotgun’ I was listening to the album first before reading the tracklisting and thought the title at one point was ‘Sucker!’ Shame on me as the title becomes easily clear, once it gets into the chorus proper.
The way the main lead vocal is presented here, it very much reminds me of someone else, which kind of threw me as elsewhere the Pawlak vocal is quite uniquely ‘theirs’ and I cannot draw comparisons typically.
It’s a fairly straightforward mid paced hard rocker.
Once the intro passes, I really love the keyboard driven opening verse to ‘Take Me Higher’ and again, as perhaps as clichéd – Yes, I said it again! – as it sounds, it’s great!
It immediately brings back memories – to me - of a couple of songs from my previous musical listening but the song has a lot more to it, there’s a lot going on with it punchy, hook laden verse and chorus and Jason even gets a synth solo in as well. Very good indeed!
‘Gypsy Road’ next is not the Cinderella track you might be thinking of. It is nothing like it at all and in fact Kindred Saint kind of brings to mind British rockers Diamond Head to mind here, just a tad and it’s rifforama for sure!
Big old choruses here on a very up tempo track.
Some seriously tasty guitar work here, nice harmony guitar!
‘Could it be You’ starts in epic fashion and is a big mid paced number, reminded me a little of April Wine for a moment, with a vocal that has a kind of haunting vibe at times. A slower paced kind of semi-ballad number in general.
Next it’s up tempo rocker ‘Be There Tonight’ which could be ZZ Top meets Metallica! Yeah, pretty quick stuff, with double kick drums going here and some really guitar interplay too.
Closing track is the slow to mid paced bluesy driven ‘I’ll be Back, Someday (Maybe).' Perhaps strange to close with a more laid back number, based on the format of other material here. I would've loved to have heard them rock out at the end. Some clever timing changes, some strange key changes too though.
A pretty good album then, even though the last track didn’t do quite as much for me as the rest of the album did, even so it’s still an enjoyable listen. If you try to track down a copy, probably best through the projects website.
Rating: 3.25 out of 5
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