Froskull (Groovestand compendium, 2014)
Although Nashville calls itself Music City, it is primarily known for its country and country-pop music scene. However, Nashville has exciting underground artists who perform unexpected genres such as ambient electronic music and progressive rock. Froskull is the new name of the former Stephen Rockford Hammond Band and they are heavily involved in progressive rock.
“It’s a very inclusive genre…. You can use your imagination on a much broader scale and draw from all sorts of influences that you might have as a musician,” says Brett Hammond, Froskull.
The self-titled album showcases the band’s talent with strong vocals and engaging harmonies, spectacular guitar solos and quirky keyboard sounds. The highlights include the lively ‘Should Have Known,’ the spacey ‘Bardo 1, the idiosyncratic ‘Bardo 2’, the well-crafted ‘Report from Ganymede’ featuring fabulous mix of vocals and memorable guitar work, the totally progressive ‘Parapatmam’ and ‘Bardo 3’ and techno piece ‘Bardo 4.’
In the other tracks, thereis also great metrial, but the guitars sometime generate metal riffs, which detract from the overall quality of the band. With such great guitar dexterity, why waste time on tired metal riffs? Thankfully, metal doesn’t permeate throughout most of the album.
Forskull’s current lineup includes Stephen Hammond, Jason Schond, Brett Hammond, and Adam Dennis.
Born and raised in Nashville, Stephen Hammond developed into a performer, composer, and producer. In 2008, he released his first full-length album, Flux Punch, named for the dissolved band in which he wrote the material.
Shortly after the album release, Stephen recruited bassist Jason Schond and founded the Stephen Rockford Hammond Band. In 2011 Stephen brought in his brother, guitarist Brett Hammond. Adam Dennis was added as drumemr in 2012, and Stephen renamed the band Froskull.
Buy CD from froskull.com or the digital download from amazon.com