By Gus Samarco, Rock At Night Raleigh, NC
Review: Honeybee’s self-titled debut album – Release date May 27, 2022 – Swingin’ Pipe Records/The Orchard
Music to my ears. If you read any of my articles before, you know I like it on the heavier side of things. Now (as I wave my hands in the air, trying to emphasize this) let me remind you the average age of this power trio is 14 years old. And, here they are enchanting my ears. Mind you, I discovered my taste for music in the early 80’s, about Revel’s age, catching up with the outcome of the New British Wave of Heavy Metal and all the “side effects” that ensued with it–but I digress. What I’m trying to say is that it’s hard for me to find new music that I really enjoy listening to. In other words, I’m impressed.
So we have a 11-year-old playing the drums like a seasoned pro and both a 15 and a 16yr old laying down solid grooves, riffs and, I can’t stress this enough, great vocals. On my biggest pet peeves when it comes to new music are the vocals and those young fellas nailed it.
Honeybee has nailed it in all departments–vocals, guitar, bass, drums, and overall, musicality. I said this about Greta Van Fleet and this is valid for Honeybee as well, “This is parenting done right!”
I’ve been trying to pick a favorite song to write about but I’m having a hard time doing that. I’d say the songs that brought the biggest grin to my face were “Get out of My Head”, “Talk Box” and “Wake”. Honeybee delivers unadulterated, melodic rock that grabs you by ears and demands your attention!
Here’s the Official Press Release:
The venerable HONEYBEE is a three piece real live rock and roll band armed with cosmic talent beyond their years. Formed in 2019 by Revel Ian (drums, age 11), Liam Williams (guitar/vocals, age 16), and Theo O’Gara (bass/vocals, age 15) deep in the Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California, HONEYBEE has already begun devastating the hearts and minds of audiences with their explosive cocktail of hard rock and heavy metal with a dash of psych, prog, and an alt-folk edge.
Struck by the otherworldly Bonham-like beats that he heard rising from his little sister’s basement band rehearsal, Liam Williams who had been looking to form a band of his own, discovered the natural-born talents of young drummer Revel Young Ian and promptly asked if he could join him on lead guitar in an impromptu jam. Immediately, the two boys gelled in sound and vibe. Realizing that they needed to carry on making music together they quickly joined forces with Liam’s classmate bass-master Theo O’Gara, and the trinity was formed.
With all three members of HONEYBEE being true multi-instrumentalists each born into musical families all with slightly different styles, Liam, Revel, and Theo recognize collectively their individual musical flavors and they bring them together to enhance their own music’s deep foundation through the spectrum of rock and roll from classic rock to nu metal and everything in between.
Pouring together an avalanche of original song ideas, HONEYBEE quickly put together an album of brand new tracks that would have bands the likes of Queens of the Stone Age afraid to follow them. All together they spent 4 days at the famous Studio 606 in Northridge, CA plugged into the legendary Sound City Neve console. There they let the fresh waves of their organic inspiration flow and coagulate through storied and time-worn channels touched by the vibrations of some of music’s greatest artists in history creating HONEYBEE’S self-titled debut album releasing May 27, 2022.
Watch Honeybee at the Whiskey A Go-Go
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Gus was Born and raised in Brasilia, Brazil but have been living in Raleigh, NC since 2000.
Headshot Photographer under Peter Hurley, Gus started shooting concerts in mid 2014 and felt in love with it and hasn’t stopped since.
Gus is a very active fiction book reader and when he’s not working, taking pictures or sleeping, Gus loves riding his Mountain Bike and can also be found shooting (guns and cameras) USPS and 3Gun matches.
His favorite bands are Metallica, Pearl Jam, Whitesnake, Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Pantera, RATM, Beastie Boys and it goes from there. Gus also enjoy listening to EDM, Jazz, Classic and pretty much anything that has good music quality, not to mention his favorite Local Band, Jack the Radio
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