SilentScream213 As far as Stoner Metal goes, this is pretty good stuff. The genre can be rather stagnant at times, but Spiritual Beggars did a great job of crafting many unique tracks here. Each one has a little something that sets them apart, and there’s a good variety in regards to mood and tempo across the whole thing.

Euphoria is the obvious highlight. That song is almost perfect Stoner Metal. The old 60’s sounding synths add a perfect atmosphere to the track, and it’s the only one on the album that could be considered “doomy.” The lyrics are weak considering the more serious sound the music takes on, but aside from that it’s a jewel of the genre.

The rest of the album is good, but doesn’t come close to those heights. Should be very enjoyable for Stoner fans, but I’m impartial to the genre, so it sits around “good, but not great” territory.

Nightfly Spiritual Beggars were formed by Michael Amott in 1994 in the time between leaving death metal band Carcass and his next death metal band Arch Enemy. Despite being better known for his contribution to melodic death metal Spiritual Beggars gave him a vehicle for his love of 70’s style hard rock.

Originally labelled as a stoner/ hard rock band, in recent years, particularly this and previous album “Earth Blues”, the band really displays very little stoner elements in their sound. Anyone with a love of David Coverdale era Deep Purple will find much to enjoy on “Sunrise To Sundown”, the bands ninth studio album. It’s not their best, that honour going to 2000’s “Ad Astra” or even “Earth Blues. It’s not their heaviest either but it wins on sheer consistency with barely a weak moment full of the kind of Hammond organ drenched rock that Purple used to (and still do occasionally) churn out.

Michael Amott’s playing is tastefully restrained – heavy but if you didn’t know you wouldn’t associate him as the same guy who’s responsible for much of the blistering guitar work in Arch Enemy. Former Opeth keyboard man Per Wilberg is the perfect foil for him making a team almost as effective as Jon Lord and Ritchie Blackmore. Apollo Panthanasio is also the ideal vocalist for a band of this ilk, having a register not unlike David Coverdale.

Despite being immediately likeable the album does take a few listens for the gems to shine through. It doesn’t get any better than the uptempo Rainbow-ish “What Doesn’t Kill You” and the slower paced but driving riffs on “Hard Road” and “No Man’s Land”, both aided, like much of the album by compelling melodies too.

If you’ve not checked out Spiritual Beggars yet and 70’s hard rock is your thing I suggest you do so pronto and “Sunrise To Sundown” wouldn’t be a bad place to start.

Kev Rowland There is just no way that music like this should exist in 2013. I mean, if this had come out forty years ago there would have been some critics saying that it was looking backwards instead of forwards as it mixes Black Sabbath with Deep Purple, Black Widow, Blue Cheer, Free, Atomic Rooster and Uriah Heep in a celebration of music where keyboards meant a Hammond Organ on overdrive that is permanently linked to either the bass or the guitar to provide an additional heaviness to the overall sound. For those who have never had the joy of hearing Sprititual Beggars before, it may come as a surprise to unvcover the line-up behind this classic rock, melodic stoner/doom band. This is the same line-up as the last album, namely bandleader Michael Amott (Arch Enemy, ex Carcass) on guitars, Ludwig Witt (Grand Magus, ex Firebird) on drums, Per Wiberg (ex Opeth) on keyboards, Sharlee D’Angelo (Arch Enemy, Witchery) on bass and Apollo Papathanasio (ex Firewind) on vocals. Overall this is the group’s 8th album and has been released just in time to celebrate their 20th anniversary.

Recorded mostly in a live situation, here is an album where evryone if feeding off each other as if it is an almighty jam. There is a vitality and essence that is often missing from studio albums, and a sense of everyone having an incredible blast as if the whole album was recorded with a smile on everyone’s face. Having come across these guys before I was smiling before the first note as I thought I knew what to expect, but by the end of the album I was grinning like a loon (the alcohol may have helped, admittedly), and each time I have played it since I have found myself back in the Seventies when I started discovering this style of music. It starts strong, and just keeps getting better. It just doesn’t get any better than this. As Amott said, “To me, it sounds like five musicians getting together in a room and making some hard rocking music and having a tremendous amount of fun doing so. It’s just a real pure band sound on the album. No samples, no triggers or other modern day studio trickery were used. We avoided making it perfect, sucking the soul out of things. Only the spirit and emotion of the song was important”. Essential. www.insideout.de

Warthur Spiritual Beggars represent an extreme version of a tendency that often irritates me in stoner rock - the tendency for stoner bands to become full-on nostalgia acts trading on people yearning after a cartoonish parody of the 1970s. Of course, there's plenty of retro-doom and stoner bands out there who build their sound on the precedent set by Black Sabbath and other bands of the era, but Spiritual Beggars are one of a set of bands who are utterly uncritical in what influences and ideas they taken from the hard rock groups of yesteryear - and in failing to be selective, they create a tasteless gruel of the blandest and most dated sounds of the decade.

bonnek It won't surprise anyone anymore but it remains just spot-on, Amott's groovy heavy retro-doom rock hobby-band SPIRITUAL BEGGARS is back after a 5 year absence and brings us exactly what we could expect. Vocalist JB who sang on the 2 previous studio albums has left the band for his own and very similar project GRAND MAGUS. His place is taken by the Apollo Papathanasio from the Greek powermetal band FIREWIND. He sounds almost exactly like JB: classic heavy rock voice, powerful and raw when needed, but balanced against a deep low-end and great warmth. Nice. Also Amott is in fine form and treats us with fat catchy riffs and good rocking grooves. Per Wiberg's contribution is reasonably modest so we'll probably have to wait for the new Opeth to fully enjoy him.

There is enough variety on the album and filler tracks are carefully avoided. Just don't expect anything new or groundbreaking, a solid stoner-doom-hard rock for fans of --fill in any 70s hard rock band--. Really nice, but it might have been a bit more exciting and dangerous maybe.