Avalanche Ft Stephanie Krokaw - Oxygen

Hear The Track Here

If Soundclick had a house rock band, Avalanche would be it. Regular readers will already know that they are the real McCoy, a meat and potatoes out and out rock band of the best kind. I have lots of their tracks on my own hard drive and I know many others who do too. I know rock isn't going to be to everyone's taste but if you have even the slightest reverence for the past thirty years of rock, you'll recognise the depth and quality of Avalanche in a heartbeat. Their secret is that they have been going for all of those thirty years and played their part in the chequered history; even the breifest perusal of their homepage will give you more than enough information to back up that claim.

So normally you are going to feel well stomped on by this bunch of geezers, but there has been one occassion where the band laid back somewhat. That was with the track Deeply (August 2007), a song written by Stephanie Krokaw who also put down the vocals for it. It's a wonderful track and I must admit I hoped that we would be hearing more from Stephanie as a songwriter and as a vocalist. I didn't suepect that it would be a year before I heard another track but hey, I am not really complaining. Although 'dollar short' and 'day late' ring around my head like irritating flies, once I starting actually listening the the track all my whines and moans fade away like a summer storm.

The main ingredient in that transformation - for me anyway - is in the tone and style of Stephanie's vocal. Yep, you would be right in saying that I do have a thing for good female vocals, but even I know quality when I hear it. Mind you, working with a band like Avalanche kinda demands it. Oxygen is a rock ballad, in the time honoured American mode, and not something I would normally covet. if it wasn't this combination, I probably wouldn't bother. Stephanie has a wonderful rough burr on her voice and it shows up as clear as crystal on Oxygen. There again, the term crystal could be applied to this entire track, that's how good it sounds. The one fly in the ointment (Ed: what is the thing with flies all of a sudden?) is a personal choice. I would have liked a lot more reverb and rounding of Stephanie's vocals, to my ears her vocal sounds very dry. There again, look at what she's competing against ;)

Top class rock ballad. Highly Recommended.