Canadian duo In Stone offer up a deliciously in-your-face and groovy rock and metal sound that they describe as “heavy, catchy and rockin’.”
The band started out as an outlet for geographically removed, isolated friends to write and record music during the Covid shutdowns. Guitarist, bassist and vocalist John MacDougall, who lives in Nova Scotia, and drummer and keyboard player Myles, from Ontario, have known each other since they were five years old and played in a few bands together over the years. But the lockdowns presented an opportunity to get the creative juices flowing and, in John’s words, “create something wicked together.”
As John explains: “I wanted to create something that can easily occupy the space shared by Rock and Metal. Something that calls back to some of the giants of the genre without straight up ripping them all off and just rehashing old sounds.”
To give us a taste for this, the duo sent us their debut single Giants Fall (Vol. 5), which was released at the end of last month and has serious and intentional Black Sabbath vibes. It starts out with light guitars that fade away and the silence is broken by a crushing riff and wild vocals “A legend never dies, but giants fall, You gave to me, A new belief, And from a wicked world you woke me from my dreams.” The big riff continues over rolling drums, feeding into more intense vocals that end with the line “But a legend, no a legend never dies.” The pace slows as a slower riff and bumbling bass feed into a mellow guitar solo that brings the track to a serene conclusion.
On the track, John said: ” So far, the reception of the song has been great! I wrote this song as a bit of a tribute to Ozzy and Black Sabbath, and I think that will give listeners a pretty good idea of its tone. A bit of trivia: the Vol 5 in the title came from the working title of the song before it had lyrics, because I always felt this song could have fit well on Sabbath’s Vol 4 album.”
That’s been followed up with In Stone’s second single The Inheritors, released a couple of weeks ago. It starts out with chunky guitar riffs that continue under huge vocals “I speak the language of the stars, I heard their wisdom, I gave them scars, And I, I stole the dreams from the gods, I felt their loneliness and I gave them loss.” The pace eventually slows with laid-back vocals, which give way to light instrumentals and spoken vocals. Stabbing guitars kick in alongside rolling drums, building the atmosphere for a big ripping guitar solo to bring the track to a powerful ending.
Unsurprisingly, the In Stone is heavily influenced by Black Sabbath, who John cites as the reason he started playing music. But they also draw influence from the likes of Motorhead, Judas Priest, The Pretty Reckless and Soundgarden, as well as bands like Fleetwood Mac and Nile.
And on what inspires them to write music, John told us: “I’ve been writing music for 30-some years now, and it’s somewhat of a compulsion. I get a riff in my head, and it just needs to come out. It’s a calling in a way, I hear music in the background of everyday, it might be a riff I hear from a whirring ceiling fan or something inspired by the noise of traffic, ya never know when that inspiration is going to strike.
“Lyrically, as I mentioned, this tune is about Sabbath and Ozzy and the role they played in my life. Spoiler, it was a big one! But I wanted In Stone to carry a message of perseverance. That no matter how much bullshit there is going on around us, there is a way out the other side, where we can all live meaningful lives in a good world.”
There’s plenty more to come from In Stone, who hope to have a third single released by the end of the year and a fourth early next year. John’s also working with a few local musicians, with whom he hopes to complete another batch of five or six songs in the studio early next year.
We don’t think In Stone are on social media, but you can listen to their music on Spotify, Amazon Music and YouTube.
Listen to In Stone and more new bands on our Spotify playlists GigRadar Metal and GigRadar Rock
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