With the 2011 release of Rose Windows’ debut effort, The Sun Dogs, the Seattle, WA-based septet quickly gained national prominence at a time when countless artists were focusing on lo-fi, bedroom recordings out of economic necessity and technological ease, and for a sound that was uncannily reminiscence of the late 60s and very early 70s; not only did their work draw heavily from The Doors, Black Sabbath and Jethro Tull, as well as Persian and other Middle Eastern traditions, their vocalist, Rabiza Qazi sounds a helluva lot like a young Grace Slick. 

May will mark the release of the Seattle, Wa-based septet’s much-anticiapted sophomore, self-titled effort, and the album’s first single “Glory, Glory” is a heavy yet rousingly anthemic dirge that sounds much more Black Sabbath-inspired than anything else they’ve released to date – well, that is until you hear the brief bursts of flute in between the power chords. Interestingly, the song may also be their most directly political song as it comments on our contemporary and very sorry global state of affairs with grim and stark imagery. 

I’ve listened to this song a number of times and every time I’ve heard it, I’m drawn by the fact that the band isn’t pulling punches and isn’t afraid to call a spade, a spade – we live in a world dominated by greed, egotism, blind hatred, ignorance, growing inequality and widening division, and so on. Watching the news makes things seem absolutely hopeless but perhaps music can still move people to want to change things.