Roadsaw

Released in 2011, the cleverly named S/T is Roadsaw's first album in three years, sixth overall over the course of an off-and-on 18-year career, and yet little has changed about the group's penchant for injecting classic hard rock sounds with millennium-straddling power. What has changed in all that time is the way that Roadsaw's creative process was gradually transformed (possibly without them even realizing it) from combining a mountain of riffs into workable songs, to composing well-constructed songs out of excellent riffs. If you know what that means. If not, just crank up the volume on surprisingly "sticky" new offerings like "Dead and Buried" (with its surprisingly shoutable chorus), "Long in the Tooth" (with its woozy wah-wah midsection), and "The Thrill Is Waiting" (simply a perfect blend of harmonious crunch, reminiscent of sadly defunct Canadians stoners the Illuminati). Yes, mountainous riffage still overwhelms everything else on some of the remaining cuts (e.g., "Thinking of Me" and "Too Much Is Not Enough"), while another few suffer from a certain doom-like dullness that isn't terminal, but far from riveting either (see "Electric Heaven," "Song X"). In other words, S/T ain't perfect, but it still easily ranks among Roadsaw's best efforts, and provides a hearty reminder that classic rockers can actually stick to their guns and manage to age gracefully nonetheless, vitality intact.