Album revels in the SSRq70s, when rock was big, loud

By John Benson

The first thing you should know about the band Album is the trio – Josh Hopkins (drums), Winfield Dray (guitar, vocals) and Jason Hopkins (bassist, vocals) – is not a stoner rock act. This is despite the fact the group deals in a rock-meets-metal sound that, well, some audiences would characterize as defining the stoner rock genre.

“You know what, ever since we started some people try to say that we are, just because all of our songs are like real grooving and good to listen to,” said Josh, a 2004 Beaver Local High School graduate. “But we’ve always tried to stay away from stoner rock and never say that’s what we want to be in. If that’s what they want to call it, that’s fine with us, but we’ll never classify ourselves as stoner rock.”

For Josh, it’s not looking down upon the stoner rock scene, but more looking up to the classic rock bands that rocked arenas in the '70s. The threesome cites influences such as Black Sabbath, Kiss, Grand Funk Railroad and more.

“Pretty much anything in the ’70s is what we play,” Josh said. “It’s original as far as like metal blues and jazz, and then it’s like straight rock ’n’ roll. We feel that for a three-piece we have a pretty-big sound, and we’ve been told that for a three-piece our live set is like a wall of sound. And we’re like, ‘Well, good, that’s why we turn it up so loud.’”

Turning it up loud, or perhaps to 11, with songs titles such as “Death By Eagle,” “Slam The Hammer” and “Sexcapades,” it’s hard not to compare Album to mockumentary band Spinal Tap. To Josh, such an association is nothing short of a compliment.

“Yeah, you know what, Spinal Tap is one of our bigger influences, too,” Josh laughed. “Just the whole concept of it’s a band and they’re real funny. Like one of the whole [ideas behind]Album is we have a YouTube channel with videos of us playing, and some of it is us trying hard to be funny but just keeping humor in our songs. For being a heavy rock ’n’ roll metal band, if you read our lyrics they’re not about feelings or girls; they’re about mystical stories.”

He quickly added, “But we take ourselves completely seriously. We just know how to make a joke out of it.”

With its debut effort due out next month, the Album members are hoping to make a splash in Northeast Ohio. The outfit is excited about its upcoming show Saturday at Barley’s. In Josh’s mind, he feels as though the band is providing a service to the Youngstown area music scene with its unique, genre-straddling sound.

“We’re just loud, kick-ass, and we feel we play music that Youngstown needs to hear right now,” Josh said. “I know there’s a lot of good bands in the area, but we feel people need to be hearing us right now because of the change of pace. Instead of getting out to just see a band play only metal songs or only hard rock songs, come see a band where you’ll hear different generations and genres of music all in one set, with a whole lot of energy and a show to go with it.”