One Gun Shy

After The Rain, the debut album from this Seattle-based foursome impresses on a number of technical levels. They deliver a great all-around rock album despite having only been together for a couple years. The amount of polish they show in both their production and their work as a group is excellent.
Bobby Znak's deep voice immediately grabs the listener, low and intense but always melodic. He displays a good range as well, moving up and down while never getting out of the tenor range. Bassist Oliver Spencer provides solid backing harmonies, sharing Znak's lower range and filling out the group's vocals.

On their best tracks, One Gun Shy builds sparse postrock-influenced soundscapes accompanied by some surprisingly trippy drumming from Chris Womble, such as on Turn A Blind Eye As with the best hard rock acts, there's real musicianship behind the guitarwork, although they're not afraid to show off their 80s roots either - I'll Still Know opens with sliding guitar work straight out of a 1987 high school flick.

One Gun Shy sound much like a prog metal act that isn't quite ready to cross over. Between Bobby Znak's versatile tenor and some very nice -if too brief- guitar interludes, there's a lot of potential going untapped. But, given the band's relative youth, there's a lot of reason to think After The Rain may be just the tip of the iceberg.

After The Rain is an excellent album with a load of great tracks.. Fans who haven't heard some good, solid heavy rock in awhile will still be happily headbanging to After The Rain.

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