Review: Titanosaur - Absence of Universe

Brand new year, brand new records. My first review of 2022 features Hudson, New York’s one-man army Titanosaur’s Absence of Universe album. It starts the year off with a wallop of a record. Geoff Saavedra is the mastermind musician/singer/songwriter behind Titanosaur and deftly performs this plethora of tasks.

I first became aware of Titanosaur through Fuzzy Cracklins’ The Swamp compilation a little over a year ago with a great track titled “Messages.” Then I heard his team-up with DemonScar when they did a kick-ass cover of Motorhead’s “Mean Machine” and I was impressed. Last year saw Titanosaur release the excellent Inti Wañu EP and on February 4^th, the world will hear the culmination of what I believe is the man’s most polished effort yet, Absence of Universe. Titanosaur has a raw sound of old school meets the new school of metal/hard rock with a pinch of punk and stoner rock thrown in. Another thing I appreciate a lot about this one-man band is the use of a mascot. You know, like Iron Maiden’s Eddie or Megadeth’s Vic Rattlehead? Titanosaur has Titano, an uber cool alien dinosaur which appears on the album cover and in pretty much every videoclip. Nobody seems to be doing that anymore (aside from the aforementioned Maiden and ‘Deth, of course) and I miss it, and I love that Geoff is doing that with Titano.

On to the music! If you’ve never heard Titanosaur’s music, it’s got echoes of Motorhead, the rawness of the Ramones, and the ferocity of Sabbath. I even hear nods in the vocal department to Godsmack—haven’t heard that band in ages but they had some cool songs back in the day—which remind me of that awesome “Scorpion King” soundtrack song “I Stand Alone” at times. But I digress. The record opens with the frenetic “The Echo Chamber.” You know you’re in for a good time from the get-go. “Conspiracy”, which was the first single, follows. A catchy and timely song, percussion-driven and filled with heavy guitar chugging. “So Happy” is another song dealing with the state of society today with some great guitar licks. Next up is “We’re All Waiting”, the second single and my personal favorite song on the album. Bound to stay stuck in your head all day (in a good way), catchy as all hell, with a groovy bassline to boot. This one has it all. “Miles to Go” slows the pace down and introduces keys to the mix. A good track to bridge the album’s two halves. The sixth song, “The Mountain”, is set to be the next single and a damn good choice at that. It’s one of those head-bobbing tunes with some terrific guitar playing. It’s followed by “Shut Off the Voices”, a definite highlight of the album. It addresses the voices in our head, whether you want to take it from a mental health point of view or just silencing our inner-demons that can sometime sabotage us, the song works really well. “I Will Live Forever” is one of the most accessible songs on the album and is about self-empowerment. It features a splendid guitar riff and some Spanish lyrics as an added bonus. The record comes to an end the way it started, with a banger, to close out in the form of “Needed Order”, packed with chugging guitars and thumping basslines.

Titanosaur is here to stay. Absence of Universe is the first must-own album of 2022. Its nine songs have infinite replay value, not a single dud on this record, folks. The musicianship is tight, no small feat when it’s one dude performing all the duties. And the songwriting is quite sound, with its parallels and analogies between Titano’s life in space and our life and issues on this earth. Head over to Bandcamp to pre-order your copy when it lands in our universe on February 4^th!

Titanosaur’s Bandcamp page: https://titanosaur1.bandcamp.com