Leaving Spirit – Things Change
Self-Release – 2019
13 tracks; 48 minutes
Leaving Spirit is a new band from Germany. Founded in 2016 by friends while still at school, the line-up changed as members went off to college – that shows how young these guys are! The band has a triple guitar line-up: Leo Kürschner, Florian Eppel and Anton Bohne are joined by Paula Frecot on lead vocals, Linus Glaesemer on bass and Felix Möser on drums. Bravely, the band have produced an all-original debut with Florian the main writer and Leo helping out on three songs.
The blues is at the heart of most rock music but there is no straight blues here. The band clearly has many influences and it is fun to try to spot those as you listen to the disc: Paula has traces of Grace Slick (though her voice is higher than Grace’s) and Stevie Nicks, in the gentler moments Americana influences like The Band appear but Southern Rock is a big influence with Lynyrd Skynyrd the most obvious with the triple guitar format.
While there is no actual blues here, the following tracks may strike a chord (no pun intended) with Blues Blast readers who enjoy rocking tunes: “Keep Rockin’ Alive” is very Southern Rock in feel and there are certainly plenty of Skynyrd references here. An anthemic tune to end the album.
“Old Lady” is one of the few songs with a male vocal (presumably Florian who wrote it) on the verses with Paula taking the chorus. The song has a great rock riff that is very appropriate as the old lady in question is a lost guitar.
The cooking riff at the core of “Free In My Mind” is sure to get your toes tapping. The acoustic setting and harmonica on “Red Leaves” brought Neil Young to mind.
Paula rails against a poser in “Fake” and the bitter lyrics are reflected in the heavy riffs and angst-ridden solo. Those who are easily offended need to be aware of several instances of the “F word” in these lyrics
All credit to these young musicians for writing all their own material and for clearly loving American rock music from the classic era. With all the blues-rock around you can well imagine Leaving Spirit doing well on the European circuit.
