Cortez

Review: Cortez ‘Thieves And Charlatans’

Having spent a lot of time this year dallying around with post-metal, dreamy, ethereal music and some serious bludgeon, my wandering attention span was clearly craving some old-fashioned, bluesy shit-kicking rock and roll.

Like an austerity-minded Genie (by which I mean the quota of wishes was slashed to one due to departmental budget cuts), Boston-based heavy rock five-piece Cortez slammed into my consciousness with the lead single Odds Are from their fourth album Thieves And Charlatans.

immediate and upbeat with plenty of hooks, the raucous track features killer riffs, a bouncing groove and incendiary lead work that shows off the chemistry between guitarists Scott O’Dowd and Alasdair Swan. Built around a robust chug with rumbling bass, it is the kind of track that can make you feel good about a journey to work on a Monday morning, and Matt Harrington’s vocals grab you from the get-go.

With an anthemic chorus that offers the salient hope and mental health advice, ‘There’s nothing wrong with your crazy thoughts, you’re not fucking up, you’re surviving’, the track was a constant staple in my house long before the promo dropped in for review, such was its ability to put a smile on my face with the life-affirming honesty of blue-collar heavy music.

But in all this excitement, I am getting slightly ahead of myself…

The Beantown natives have been plying their trade since 2007 when they released their debut EP Thunder In A Forgotten Town. Whilst they can’t boast the most prolific output with their three albums coming at a rate of one every four-ish years (2012’s self-titled debut, sophomore The Depths Below in 2017 and 2020s Sell The Future) it comes as no surprise to hear that the DNA for Thieves And Charlatans was built during the pandemic. The vacuum of creating music with no outside feedback has resulted in Cortez diversifying their sound to incorporate a more complex sound than just Black Sabbath worship.

Starting with the high-octane sugar rush of Gimme Danger, Cortex smashes out of the blocks with a crunching party anthem and Harrington soars over the buzzing guitars with an eighties rock-sounding party number. Featuring a catchy chorus and dramatic fretboard pyrotechnics over a muscular guitar riff, cowbell and thunderous drumming from Alexei Rodriguez (who has since been replaced by Kyle Rasmussen), this is rock and roll injected straight into your veins like a drug.

After the ninety-mile-an-hour start, Leaders Of Nobody slows the pace with a long, slow, doom-laden opening that bristles under the mournful air. The main riff rocks back and forth and with guest vocals from Jim Healey (We’re All Gonna Die) the lyrics plead with the listener, especially on the killer line ‘Wake up, don’t you see, we’re wasting all our energy, with all the all-consuming lies’ before the twin guitars rip into a delicious galloping middle section and solo.

“Their latest album has talent in buckets and, in just short of an hour, they demonstrate exactly why Ripple Music signed them…”

Stove Up dips into the band’s riff bank by using material written at the time of the 2007 EP with a more classical, crashing swing. Joined by Craig Riggs (Roadsaw), Harrington continues to raise his game as the band go through a more traditional blues workout that bounces with heavy grooves and allows the individual members to shine with extra flourishes in what feels like a ‘70s stadium rock workout.

The chopping metronome of No Heroes returns to the harder-edged, moodier side of the band. The sawing tempo of the mid-paced stomper gets you nodding your head as Alexi Rodriguez hammers the kit and then somehow manages to put even more energy into the melodic slower section in the middle. Benny Grotto and Alan Douches, who handled the recording and mastering respectively, deserve a nod for managing to make Cortez sound a million bucks on one of the most epic and lively albums I have heard this year.

Levels starts with a gloomy bassline and tapping, brushed drums as the slow-burning track unfolds. Whilst Harrington’s centre-stage vocals dominate the first part of the creeping and sinister atmosphere, the band grow around him and build as the tension and malice increase until they finally let go. As the gritty, sprawling eight-minute number unfolds, Riggs returns once more for the gruff gang vocal as Cortez treats the listener to unsettling harmonies and an exercise in power in this multi-layered workout.

After the gung-ho blast of Odds Are, the follow-up Liminal Spaces rides high on a riff that could be like the bastard cousin of Sabbath’s Under The Sun as they lead you through one of their longer numbers. Thumping toms and fuzzy riffing grab you by the scruff of the neck under the echoing, vulnerable vocals before taking you off on another head-nodding journey. When they slam you into the full-throated passages and machine gun-like pummelling, you are involuntarily throwing horns into the air before being dazzled by the histrionic soloing and the raging climax. It’s quite a ride.

The muted guitar opening of Solace comes as a slight relief, but the band aren’t willing to go quietly and swing for the fences with a big rock finish that oscillates between the thoughtful, restrained vocals and the triumphant bombast. As the band pour every ounce into bringing all their guns to bear in the most emotionally charged moments of Thieves And Charlatans, you can almost feel the swell of confidence in their art radiating through them.

Once in a while, an album comes along that simply demands your attention. Cortez may play themselves off as having ‘a straight-ahead, don’t-need-nuthin’-fancy-when-you-can-rock-like-this attitude’ but that humbling downplaying of their skillset sells themselves very, very short. Their latest album has talent in buckets and, in just short of an hour, they demonstrate exactly why Ripple Music signed them with their career-best release to date.

As the nights draw long and my end-of-year list starts to play on my mind, Thieves And Charlatans just swaggered into my top ten and took a seat.

Scribed by: Mark Hunt-Bryden

Cortez – Thieves And Charlatans (Ripple Music) [Rich Piva]

Boston’s Cortez have been bringing the stoner doom heavy since 2006, but now, in 2024, the band has created their best work with their new record, Thieves And Charlatans, brought to us via Ripple Music. The band has always kicked ass and has been one of the top tier outfits of the genre, but Thieves And Charlatans brings a complexity and a variability in styles that has not been as prevalent on their previous four other full lengths. Add that, with some next level songwriting and their usual killer playing, and you get the best Cortez record till date and an album of the year candidate. 

Opening with the most straight up party rock song (I hear late 80s hard rock) the band has ever done (in the best sort of way), Gimme Danger sets the tone for a different sort Cortez experience. It is not like the band has gone and done some kind of prog concept record and added a brass section, but Gimme Danger is enough of a departure to certainly notice something different here, and I am so here for it. Leaders Of Nobody has an Ugly period Life Of Agony feel to it with a killer riff and excellent vocals from Matt Harrington. I love the tempo changes and how it seemingly crawls to its end. 

Stove Up is the trademarked Cortez rocker with killer riffs and excellent vocals that has always made Cortez so great. No Heroes is a gigantic song. It is huge all around, from the playing to the singing and goes in all sorts of excellent directions. It is on Levels when we really get into the genius of Thieves And Charlatans. This is like the stoner doom version of Jane’s Addiction’s Three Days which is to say this absolutely rules and is my favourite Cortez track ever and one of my favourite songs in a long time. I am not overstating this. Eight minutes and twenty-two seconds of brilliance. 

Odds Are and Liminal Spaces are songs that remind you how much the band understands both the heavy side of things as well as melody, with the latter using some cool vocal effects. The closer, Solace, is almost on the level of Levels and is a huge, dynamic, and intense way to close out a record. It would have been easy and probably still excellent if Cortez put out a record of riff heavy rockers in the stoner doom vein that they excel at. Instead Thieves And Charlatans takes a band almost 20 years in down a path of creating their masterpiece by flexing their creative muscles and taking some risks, with a seriously amazing payoff. 10/10

Cortez Cast Out “Thieves and Charlatans” Through Pure Rock Fury

Riding their own underground current, Cortez has consistently made a case for their own unmistakable identity. Born from the New England heavy music scene in the mid-2000s, the Boston five-piece plays rock with undeniable stoner and doom influences, yet each successive album has veered farther from conventions toward what I can only describe as the ideal form of rock’n’roll. The opening track of their new album Thieves and Charlatans, “Gimme Danger,” lays out what that sounds like — tight grooves crafted from warm, blustery guitars that fill up all the sonic space they can, with commanding vocals that can stop listeners in their tracks. It’s a sonic treat throughout — carefully cultivated drum tones keep in all the kit’s sharp edges while providing a punch, and the rest of the rhythm section drives each song toward their powerful conclusions.

Each track on Thieves and Charlatans is melodically compelling, with heavy riffs that seem to tell a new story every time even as they get heads nodding. There’s points on the record where the doom and stoner metal influences come into focus — the grooves get somber, and melancholy creeps in — but interestingly, they’re more of narrative downturns than arbitrary musical diversions. Cortez are out to tell stories on Thieves and Charlatans, and their dynamic, high-volume approach is a hell of a medium.

It doesn’t even take the full album for Cortez to lay out their case for hard rock sovereignty — but take the time to listen to the full album, which we’re premiering a day early here, and get your fill of full-throated American volume.

-Ted Nubel

Boston stoner metallizers Cortez are back in your neighborhood with a new set, Thieves And Charlatans.

I started listening to Cortez a few years ago when I was living in the Northeast because they are fantastic. Heavy, creative, and imminently headbangable, each and every song will get you one way or another. They have released an EP, a couple f splits, and three previous long-players leading up to Thieves And Charlatans. The band is Matt Harrington (vocals), Scott O’Dowd (guitar), Alasdair Swan (guitar), Jay Furlo (bass), and Kyle Rasmussen (drums). All drums on the album performed by Alexei Rodriguez.

Talking about the latest music, frontman Harrington said, “This album is an anomaly of sorts because these songs were written and recorded in a vacuum, during a pandemic. Cortez has never been shy about playing new songs before they are released, and this is the first time we didn’t have the filter of an audience. I feel like this is a more personal record as a result. We wrote these songs as friends in a room that no longer exists, holding onto something real in a prolonged period of extreme doubt, and we present them in the same way.”

The coconut is cracked with “Gimme Danger (On My Stereo),” and it is a catchy motherfucker. The riffs are the lure and the vocals are the net that scoops you up. The lead guitar is mesmerizing. “Leaders Of Nobody” presents doom to get your attention and picks up the pace as it goes along, speeding toward the end and slowing as it reaches. “Stove Up,” which is the way I feel every time I wake up, is surprisingly buoyant, given the title. And then we arrive at “No Heroes,” a grinder that will gnaw on your bones. Excellent.

On the backside there is “Levels,” a cautious and powerful metal song that came from granite lands. “Odds Are” sounds simultaneously laid back and serious, while “Liminal Spaces” is duo-thematic as well, being spacey and grounded at the same time. The album ends with “Solace,” which is melancholy and soulful and soaring, going out on a smooth crescendo. This is another fantastic album from Cortez. Highly recommended.