★★★★★
Today, it's all too easy to listen to blues-rock music and dismiss it as merely a tribute to its former heyday. The grooves patented by the likes of Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones and Hendrix are generally associated with the classic rock and progressive blues of the 60s and 70s, but with the help of Jack White, The Black Keys et al., the last few years have made it relevant once again. L.A...
- www.noripcord.com
2014-06-04
★★★★★
L.A. quartet Rival Sons made a big splash in 2011 with their breakthrough album, Pressure & Time. It put the rest of the retro-rock scene on notice: rehash the past all you want, but we're the future.
Precious few revivalists possess that old black magic to set them apart. But to a fusion of the classic hard rock and progressive blues of the 60s and 70s, genuine soul and a gutsy groove, Rival Sons add the real X Factor: great, great songs...
- www.bbc.co.uk
2013-04-01
★★★★★
It takes a degree of skill to make music that ticks all the classic rock boxes without sounding like a shameless exercise in nostalgia, but despite impeccable retro credentials Rival Sons are doggedly establishing themselves as a vital force for the modern age, too...
- www.guardian.co.uk
2012-09-17
★★★★★
Sound: Rival Sons' second full-length release, "Pressure & Time" (first full-length release with Earache Records) is a solid album full of riff-heavy blues rock, reminiscent of the heavier side of Led Zepellin. The guitar tone is gritty and a close re-creation of the tone of a lot of the early 70's blues rock bands. At times the songs remind me of Led Zeppelin, Cream or The Rolling Stones...
- www.ultimate-guitar.com
2012-04-12
★★★★★
With high-profile supports slots with the likes of AC/DC and Alice Cooper under their belts and iTunes' Rock Breakthrough Band of the Year 2011 award resting on what may one day become a groaning mantelpiece, LA quartet Rival Sons are big news in the rock world. Plying a brand of soulful hard rock dripping with the blues and swaggering to a good-time groove, they're arguably the best recent addition to the swelling ranks of 70s revivalist acts...
- www.bbc.co.uk
2012-03-15
★★★★★
If you love bluesy, old-school 1970s-style rock, this second album from Los Angeles quartet Rival Sons should please you. Shades of Deep Purple, Cream and Led Zeppelin abound, not to mention a certain White Stripes vibe, with whom they share some influences. Pressure & Time even features artwork by the legendary Storm Thorgerson, who designed nearly every Pink Floyd album cover...
- hour.ca
2011-10-31
★★★★★
Over the decades many a band has come and gone attempting to bottle the essence of Led Zeppelin and sell it back to the public as something original. Wolfmother came pretty close to hitting the mark a few years back and boasted a couple radio hits, but were largely derivative at the end of the day. Enter Rival Sons, a gritty four-piece out of Southern California...
- www.urb.com
2011-09-12
★★★★★
LA-based band RIVAL SONS has a distinctive rhythm and blues groove and a '70s flavored rock 'n' roll swagger like the greats of the past. Retro, classic, nostalgic? Whatever you want to call it, RIVAL SONS rocks. RIVAL SONS' sophomore release, Pressure & Time, through Earache Records, is a slab of meaty songs reminiscent of LED ZEPPELIN, FREE, and THE BLACK CROWES with a zesty up-to-date sound...
- www.smnnews.com
2011-08-15
★★★★★
3/5 It's fitting that the first cut on these L.A. dudes' debut full-length lifts the melody of "The Time Warp" from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Although they dress like modern-day Sunset Stripsters, Rival Sons blast back musically to the early '70s blues-rock of Free and Bad Company. (In slower material like "Only One," they bask in the light of a more recent lodestar: "She Talks to Angels" by the Black Crowes...
- www.revolvermag.com
2011-08-01