EARLY MOODS - A Sinner's Past LP

Sophomore album is the ultimate dosage of classic early ’70s proto-metal, ’90s grunge riffing and timeless songwriting delivered with an explosive youthful energy. The Los Angeles area quartet burst onto the scene fully formed with a sound that somehow simultaneously merged gritty underground street doom with slick “big box” heavy metal melodies on their self-titled Riding Easy debut album in 2022. And it’s the band’s highly skilled musicianship paired with exquisite aesthetic taste—in addition to their killer live show—that has made them an immediate popular favorite.

A Sinner’s Past takes those elements several steps higher with a nod to Soundgarden’s huge sonic depth, the low-mid fuzz drenched tones of Sabotage and classic ’70s melodies and structures of Uli Roth-era Scorpions. The latter in particular inspiring the album’s intricate tonal shifts and shimmering twin leads.

The album was recorded near the band’s home base in Pico Rivera, CA by Allen Falcon of Birdcage Studios, who also mixed their debut album. Early Moods was founded in 2015 by guitarist Eddie Andrade and vocalist / keyboardist Alberto Alcaraz after a few years of playing in thrash and death metal projects before the two realized that the classic doom that they’d grown up with was what they really wanted to explore. Going through a few lineup changes while delving deeper into the diverging influences that were calling, Early Moods arrived at the sound and lineup that grew their fanbase locally. The band released their debut EP Spellbound in 2020 on German label Dying Victim Productions, followed by their self-titled debut full length on Riding Easy Records in 2023.