DIONIZED is a project of singer and multi instrumentalist Adam Farr from New Zealand. He did the entire work on his debut album Lighthouse with 8 tracks. This album seems to be a result of Covid and isolation as it was composed in that era and meticulously produced for almost 4 years. The sound is Stoner Metal as fuck as you can hear in the first track “God Damn”. Guitars are tuned down and some fuzz  added as the main ingredient and I like it. SABBATH always comes to mind as for me they are the king of any kind of Metal. “Wolf At The Dog Park” starts with a Tony Iommi kind of riff that gives me a smile. The overall mood is dark as expected, and the tunes are beefy. Around 5 min average with different moods and some touches of psychedelic. The album title track “Lighthouse” has some really crunchy guitar riffs and I can see that the songs are well structured despite the ALICE COOPER delivery on the vocals.

Generally the instrumentals and production are at a good level and the tunes are creative and with good riffs as you can hear in “Mesa Black”. However, the vocals did not convince me yet. Adam has the type of vocals that is a mix of ALICE COOPER and ROB ZOMBIE and therefore, not the most powerful. Not much range and not many good melodies. It fits the overall proposal but it does not impress. Another SABBATH inspired riff starts “Shaman’s Vine” and it shows that Adam is a good guitar player as well as a bass player. The drums you never know if they are programmed or not in this kind of solo artist do it all production. On this specific track there is a mid section with some percussion like in a ceremony for the Shaman. Maybe Adam is a great drummer as well. The shortest track of the album, and also the more energetic one is “Drunken Hunting” , which sounds like a bad idea. No vocals on this one unfortunately. However, it is a nice instrumental with weird time signatures that could use some melody lines. We reach “Draconian” that has a nice bass section in the middle of the tune and I can say that my beloved bass is very well present in all tracks on this album contributing to that low end in the mix.

We end our journey with the peculiar song title “If An Axe Is An Arm” that is also peculiar in its introduction. With completely different vocals and a soft and almost angelical arrangement, the artist distanced himself completely from the style of the other songs and delivered an interesting approach that could be better if it had a superior vocal delivery and a nicer melody. Nevertheless, this track seems to not belong to this album. Good effort from our friend Adam. The riffs are creative and heavy and the album has a good production. However,in every “one artist do it all” album, there is always something that will be below the level of the overall product. Sometimes it is the production, sometimes it is the artificial drums. In this album, is the vocals unfortunately. It is hard to be good at everything and there would be no shame in calling a singer to match the good arrangements from DIONIZE.