Hailing from Stamford, Connecticut, alt-rock outfit the Hosemen recently dropped a new album, entitled Saturday Nite Conformity.
Recorded at Sterling Sound in Nashville under the auspices of Grammy winner Richard Corsello, who mixed and mastered the tracks, the album reveals the Hosemen’s unique blend of rock, dance, metal, and operatic influences.
Explaining the band’s sound, frontman Carpanzano says, “We are a very unique band that does not follow trends. The songwriting comes from anything that resonates deep in your soul to the bottom of your toes.”
Made up of Anthony Quinn Carpanzano (guitar, vocals), Brien Adams (bass), and Wade McManus (drums), frontman Carpanzano formed the band in 2005, initially naming the band Mantyhose. After Adams and McManus entered the lineup in 2016, Carpanzano altered the name to Hosemen.
After a decade of honing their sound and live performances in the Tristate region, during which they shared the stage with Helmet and Liege Lord, the band is primed to explode onto the national scene with Saturday Nite Conformity and a national tour.
Comprising seven-tracks, the album kicks off with “Sickness,” opening on a light gleaming guitar flowing into a potent muscular rhythm topped by dark powerful guitars mirroring a grungy alt-rock flavor. Carpanzano’s deliciously impassioned voice delivers the lyrics with maiming emotive timbres.
“Got a sickness / I’ve got a sickness for you / And I got to fix this / I got to fix this for you / Only you / And all the world / All the world loves you / Only you.”
From a subjective viewpoint, highlights on the album include “I Surround,” which merges alt-rock and punk flavors into a formidable concoction of growling guitars riding a skintight thrumming rhythm composed of Adams’ stellar bass line and McManus’ Thor-like hammering drums. A scorching guitar solo elevates the harmonics to blazing intensity, while the wall-of-sound climax crushes with raging sonic force.
The title track travels on a syncopated groove topped by pulsating guitars, as Carpanzano’s tones infuse the lyrics with latent tension. Vaguely reminiscent of the Kings of Leon, this track grumbles with surging suppressed energy.
A personal favorite, “Mush” opens on stuttering guitars crowned by Carpanzano’s snarling voice, and then ramps up to a viciously strident punk-flavored melody full of grinding metallic guitars. Adams’ fat bass line rumbles with subterranean tectonic vibrations, setting up the solo, where Carpanzano lights it up with insanely devastating licks on his axe.
Wow! Saturday Nite Conformity is ruthlessly excellent, full of fulminating guitars, fierce rhythms, and Carpanzano’s lacerating vocals. Hosemen got next up!
