THE BROUGHT LOW – "RIGHT ON TIME" Small Stone Records Euphoric Aerosmith / Humble Pie-worshippers come good. Small Stone Records have an unerring talent of unearthing firebrand rock bands with a protean ability to blow ones socks off with all the robust force of a typhoon and recent signings 'The Brought Low' are no exception. These sticky fingered New Yorker's crank out refried honky tonk shimmy shake with all the hard rockin' bravura of vintage Aerosmith. Joyously "Right on Time" is far from mere Stonesian nostalgia as this album smoulders with a myriad of bluesy guitar hip shakers and if y'all fancy getting' high an' wired this weekend one could do a lot worse than cranking up the full bloodied, 'Blues for Cubby' with it's hep cat syntax and sassy Foghat grunt that translates into one big ass good time. 'Tell Me' is probably their most incandescent ode, Benjamin Howard Smith's lucid guitar lines are super-charged with enough feisty Joe Perry shuck an' frug to burn off Daisy Duke's hot pants, a deliriously infectious barroom meltdown that should inspire libidinous movement in even the most conservative of muscles. The Brought Low are a euphoric rock n' roll rebirth somewhere betwixt the incorrigible scuzz bag blues of Johnny Thunders and the anthemic, exultant pissed up boogatron of Humble Pie. 'Right on Time' will shake more than your moneymaker, daddio! [As an addendum vocalist, Benjamin Howard Smith's delivery is extraordinarily similar to the idiosyncratic pitch of the legendary singer-songwriter, Kevin Coyne, quite startling and unexpected really]. jason CELTIC FROST – "MONOTHEIST" Century Media Celtic frost re-emerge with a new CD which is a strong contender for album of the year… Celtic f**king Frost! One of my favourite bands from yore ["Into the Pandemonium" still ranks as my 3rd album of all time...] is back. Colossal disaster waiting to happen or triumphant return? Needless to say, I'm not the only one that's been speculating on this for the last couple of years when a reunion was announced after the lacklustre success of Tom G. Warrior's pretty good Apollyon Sun project. Also, needless to say, memories of the more spectacular band suicide ever in the form of the disastrous "Cold Lake" album from 1989 are still strong. Is "Monotheist" a reunion album to cash in or a valid and vibrant record by a still creative force? After only a single listen, you know it's the latter. After about 10 listens, the sheer quality of the song writing, recording and production impress more. This record steamrollers everything in its path and any other bands making this type of music should look once again to Celtic Frost for inspiration. 'Progeny' opens the record with classic 80s Frost guitar grinding and proceeds in good "To Mega Therion" form to rattle brainpans with snarled vocals, superb drumming and raging guitars. 'Ground', a track previously released years ago as a fairly average demo, now snarls and spits its way with a killer chorus [no, really] and again harkens back to "To Mega Therion." Things go a bit off-road with the third track, in typical Frost fashion, with 'A Dying God Coming Into Human Flesh' with Gothic overtones, clean vocals and quite Flying Saucer Attack vibes. That is, until the raging guitars and processed vocals blast in....evil sounding doom of the finest order. Things continue in a typical non-linear Frostian path with 'Drown in Ashes' which opens with female vocals sounding not unlike Julianne Regan from All About Eve and counterpointing Warrior's clean, gothic vocals. Synths dominate rather than guitars on this track and it's absolutely stellar. 'Os Abysmi vel Da'ath' steers the album back towards doomier grind, slower than the opening tracks, but hitting classic slow-rolling Frost. An ambient midsection sounding not unlike Coph Nia's output breaks up the thunder. 'Temple of Depression' sounds quite similar to Apollyon Sun's more industrial vibe and it's my least favourite track off the album. 'Obscured' follows and this is possibly the finest track off the album by my ears. It is an excellent gothicly inspired track with Warrior channeling Andrew Eldritch and counterpoint female vocals with a crunchy singalong chorus. Spectacular track. 'Domain of Decay' and 'Ain Elohim' change tack again and is are very typical 80s Frost tracks with churning riffs and, for the first time on the record, a solo! 'Totengott' is a short dark piece with "evil" vocals and ambient backing, akin to Coph Nia's darker moments ['Doppelganger'] and excursions off "To Mega Therion" ['Tear's of a Prophet's Dream']. It functions as a good intro to 'Synagoga Satanae', the longest track on the album clocking in a 14:24. This track bristles with gothic-laden arpeggios, controlled feedback and doomy riffing and another atmospheric spoken, or snarled, midsection. 'Winter' is a mellow outro for the album with orchestral strings in a minor key giving the feel of an age-old lamentation. Overall, the quality of this album after a 14 year break from Celtic Frost's last studio album ["Vanity/Nemesis"] is breathtaking. Die-hard thrash fans may balk at the more gothic moments, but this is not atypical for Celtic Frost considering the original release of "Into the Pandemonium" ['One in their Pride', 'Tristesses de la Lune', 'Rex Irae']. The high point for me is the way the album seamlessly takes signatures from earlier Frost albums [guitar tones, vocal stylings, riff structures...] and updates them for current musical trends, but without compromising the overall Frostness of the album. 'Monotheist" will take some beating for album of the year for this reviewer... a. COLOUR HAZE – "TEMPEL" Elektrohasch Records German stoners scale a new peak. Colour Haze return with another magnum opus of lush, 'Sky Valley' inspired, transcendental jams, and once you burrow beyond the ubiquitous desert rock schroomaroom, this effervescent album beguiles with its mellifluous harmonies and epic, guitar travelogues. Individually the songs waft towards the ephemeral and appear almost too nebulous, yet it is this very twilight quality which lends "Tempel" its considerable charm. This is a rainbow-hued, undulating, sonic lava lamp, where hypnotic eddies of molten wax is replaced with exultant, analogue groove. It is a truly immersive piece with euphoric, grandiose flurries of fabulously furry, Tab 25, riff-adelia, and happily this isn't a crass Monster Magnet / Kyuss parody since the expert Colour Haze mood alchemists infuse an idiosyncratic formulae into their immersive pools of etherised space guitar. For me this is arguably Colour Haze's most absorbing collection of psychoactive overspill thus far, and should you have a yen for the inner space adventuring of King Crimson, Steve Hillage or Klaus Schulze one could do far worse than genuflect before this Tempel of psyche... These Krauts rock, but inwardly rather than out. jason DEADMAN – "S/T" Crusher Records Impressive debut from Swedish stoners. This album is precisely what the summer of 2006 needs. Taken whole, it's a record that has polished the sounds of Lou Reed, Jefferson Airplane, and The Doors [and also Jethro Tull & Fairport Convention –ed]. What makes this record extra tasty is the sprinkle of desert flavor not unlike that of Orquesta Del Desierto. The disc opens with the impeccably catchy 'Goin' over the Hill' and pulls you through a field of psychedelic rock, closing with the fourteen minute spacey-rock-out 'Deep Forest Green.' This is Deadman's debut album and could be exactly what they need to put their name on the map. Almost all of the tracks on this album are great. One particular stand-out track is 'Haunted Man,' which shows a different side of the band -- the first half sounds like a song that The Sadies and Calexico might have collaborated to write! This song is definitely a treat that keeps getting sweeter, for out of nowhere Deadman wraps a metaphorical arm around us and guides us through a Doors-like jazz/rock freakout. The songs 'Mumbo Gumbo' and 'Season of the Dead' may inspire to dig out your Jefferson Airplane records for ear-pleasure after the 42 rockin' minutes of this album whip by. However, if you can't find them, don't shy away from the opportunity to listen to this record once more. Listen harder this time and appreciate the bluesy harmonicas, out-there moog synthesizers, and the guitar solos drenched in the sound of the 1970's. Despite how good this record is, this band definitely has more up their sleeve. Deadman holds back a little too much at times, to the detriment of the music. If Deadman weed out some of the clichés, then we could have a fantastic follow-up to look forward to. If you're the type to wonder where the 60's and 70's went [and wish they hadn't gone away], then giving this band a listen just might help you relive some of those good times... and I'd be happy to join you in the festivities! victor DEXTER JONES' CIRCUS ORCHESTRA – "MORBYN OUTTAKES" Freebird Records Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, FREAK OUT! Dexter Jones' Circus Orchestra hail from Sweden, and are here to rock! This four-track EP has some awesome cover art, all primary colours and line drawings. Simple, yet groovy. And that, I think, is the DJCO ethos in a nutshell. First track 'In Front Of You' grooves along with all the pomp and swagger of The Hives playing along to a Nebula record, with build-up after build-up reaching a crescendo, and a rocking, off kilter solo that rises and falls from the mix like a great sea monster's neck from the murky depths. The vocals hit all the right notes and add to the overall harmony of the tune. 'A Dirty Thing' starts like a Minus The Bear tune stripped of all synth and replaced with hypnotic guitar work ebbing over the main bones of the song, and the vocals again are the icing on the ear candy. Again the timings make the song funk along like a beast, all jerky dancing and headbanging wildly, but whilst still maintaining a laid back vibe. I get the feeling this records as good for driving the tarmac kingdom as it is driving the thought process. Freebird Records are clearly onto a good thing here, with 'I Do My Best' keeping up the laid-back yet energetic vibrations well. The recording quality of the record is quite superb, never sounding dry or weak, and always dropping the riffs as heavily as possible. The vocals are well mixed over the top and really help to drive the songs along their chosen path, before turning the lead melody over to some rather superb guitar work yet again, as a dual solo takes you to the song's conclusion. Finale 'Expectations' is a slow burner, building to a magnificent end that fittingly puts paid to an inventive and original endeavour. So, a rather smashing modern helping of avant-FREAK from the new European masters of the genre, this four-track EP follows their debut cult hit with a fanfare of intent. If you want some relief from the crushing growls of the modern music scene, check these guys out. Dexter Jones' Circus Orchestra certainly know how to rock and hypnotise in equal measure, a retro, rainbow boot to the face of The Scene…. dave e destruction DIXIE WITCH - "SMOKE & MIRRORS" Small Stone Records Texas finest sons deliver some damn fine, shit-kicking stoner boogie for long hot summer nights. Dixie Witch's latest "Smoke & Mirrors" kicks off with a superb double act, the magnificent 'Set The Speed' followed swiftly by 'Shoot The Moon.' 'Set The Speed' with its Skynyrd meets Sabbath ginuwine rock-a-thon vibrations, blasts convincingly into the equally air-guitar friendly 'Shoot The Moon.' This mighty opening salvo is then followed by the dirty Motorhead and Mastodon drag race called 'S.O.L.' Talk about a fine start to their latest offering. 'Ballinger Cross' follows the rather blah 'Out In the Cold' and outdoes it in every way possible, making the former seem all the more like filler material. After a brief rolling session and some reflection comes an unexpected foot stomping change in the middle of 'Getaway', followed by a very serious solo. Texan boys Dixie Witch sure can rock, whether it's for two minutes or seven, as bombastic solos are confronted with a heavy modern backline and a whole heap of fuzz. Skynyrd-style guitar bottlenecking are the bones of 'What You Want', which displays a very southern groove. The vocals here are sort of reminiscent of Dave Wyndorf sent back to the 60s to save the future of rock. The vocals in general are very classic rock, with overtones at times of both Ozzy and Bruce Dickinson. No bad thing, but they sometimes fail to match the intensity of the heavy-dropping backline and some dynamics feel slightly unfulfilled. That said, I far prefer the band's vocal delivery to any full-on growl-o-rama! Dixie Witch recorded this album with Joel Hamilton, who has worked with acts as diverse as Mike Patton and Elvis Costello, and his touch shines through in the production, everything sounds as it was meant to, from the dirty gritty moments to the shiny peaks of the songs. "Smoke and Mirrors" can certainly kick out the jams, although the pace does drop a bit from the raucous start. A rather fine slab of modern stoner grooves to kick back with on a long hot summer's eve, this is perfect music for driving to the beach on one of 'those' days. Best enjoyed lightly chilled. dave e destruction FACEDOWNINSHIT – "NPON" [NOTHING POSITIVE, ONLY NEGATIVE] Relapse Oppressive, traumatizing metal. Facedowninshit is a crass, abrasive moniker for a band that does little to prepare one for the nihilistic, doom-encrusted metal therein.Tainted music that bleeds guitar misanthropy with the gruesome efficacy of a livid mortar wound, your soft tissues wrest asunder by girth some, Largactyl-soaked, grime-core, a hedonistic miasma of punkoid sturm und drang that torments the nervous system like cheap alcohol. Along with Mugwart, Kylesa & Harvey Milk, Facedowninshit successfully coerce the recoiling listener into a brutal, oppressive nightmare that simultaneously beguiles and repulses with its undiluted vitriol and fearsome scuzz-tones, yet amongst all this chaotic discharge one gradually becomes aware of a palpable human fragility that tempers all the riotous discord. Ultimately NPON is a vicious, unrepentant noise that has been beaten into bloody existence, fuelled by truculent, immersive riffs forged into miserable being via the arbitrary horrors and profound injustices of modern life. If Eyehategod were a syphilitic whore molested by a pestilential drug fiend, the rancorous abomination expunged from her reeking, diseased loins might bear horrifying resemblance to Facedowninshit. Whilst watching an autopsy might initially confound the sensibilities, yet once the chest cavity has been exposed and we can see the extraordinary complexities of our glistening machinery our initial repulsion softens to that of awe and incorrigible curiosity, and there is a similarly paradoxical beauty to this traumatizing metal. jason FIVE HORSE JOHNSON – "THE MYSTERY SPOT" Small Stone Records Toledo's bad ole boys rock on. Until 2006, Five Horse Johnson struck me as an average, admittedly zesty pub rock crew toiling beneath an above average moniker, so I must admit to approaching this album with considerable reticence. When it comes to moonshine-fuelled, Sledgehammer-heavy, roughneck, bruise blooze it's gonna have to be a mighty potent brew to stop me reaching for a tall drink O' Alabama Thunderpussy… ZOIKS! Looks like I may have to add "The Mystery Spot" to the play list as there's more explosive, inebriate, bellicose swagger on the disc than a whiskey-soaked Oliver Reed throwing beery roundhouses at Molly Hatchet's road crew… This album is a real rump kicker, a Molotov cocktail of swollen, infectious, Frank Marino guitar groove, mixin' it up via some rattlesnake-mean, Thorogood / Jon Spencer, street fightin' blues scuzz, a riotous, celebratory ode to re-fried, gutsy, bad boy boogie that's a Mahogany Rush from the get go. And after 45 minutes, Five Horse Johnson's V 12 engine is still red linin' at maximum revs. I urge you to dig out your Blackfoot, Rory Gallagher, Foghat, or Marino albums and not marvel at the sheer audacity of F.H.J gleefully cherry picking all the volatile, grimy bombast of 70's, white-line fever blues rock and successfully searing their own white-hot brand into it's well-worn, denim & leather hide. I must contest the accuracy of their reference to 'goin' off like ten cent dynamite, since "The Mystery Spot" explodes like a gun powder cock nuts deep in a semtex glory hole! The whole album is a B-B-Q-sticky, riff treat from start to finish but the woozy, Beefheart booglarization of 'Drag You There' is a standout for me. All in all 'The Mystery Spot' adds much verisimilitude to the age old fear of Rock N' Roll being a corruptive force, since a few bars into album opener, and I was blearily reachin' for a ice-cold beer with a hot broad chaser, hot diggity, these bad ole boy's mean business. jason Five Horse Johnson's Eric: "Hammy a.k.a. Scott Hamilton, CEO and CFO of Small Stone records, suggested we go to Boston MA and give this Craig Riggs kid [of Roaddsaw / Antler-fame] a try, and so we did. We had some airline "ooops sorry we fucked up" vouchers left over from the afore mentioned "particularly nasty tour" and cashed 'em in for flights to good old Bean-town!" "So we spent two and a half days in Mad Oak studios screaming our fool heads off and laying down snappy guitar tracks. Another hyper-productive sesh! Not that it was easy to concentrate with Riggs and the rest of the Roadsaw / Antler crew challenging us to a "HOLY SHIT I CAN DRINK 36 BEERS, CAN YOU" contest twice a day. But things went pretty smoothly, and an unholy alliance was born. We tracked to the very last possible second, until we absolutely HAD to leave to catch our flight home." "After that it was basically a waiting game. Craig mixed and we waited. After some demos and rough mixes we got the final product, and to quote Spinal Tap and The Bible "IT WAS GOOOOD!" Read Eric's studio report. GENEROUS MARIA – "ELECTRICISM" Buzzville Records Second full-length studio album by hard-rocking Swedes. Generous Maria have suffered a lot in their career, with the collapse of previous record label Lunasound Records at the peak of the band's first album popularity and their subsequent battle for [copy]rights and transfer to new label Buzzville Records, but with their second release "Electricism" they hope to reach new ears and a plateau of stability. I would best describe Generous Maria as a cross between Monster Magnet and Clutch, a nice job but nothing new. 'Ripe' would be my pick as the best illustration of their sound, but 'Sheer Violence', 'Slit-Eyed Lizard' and 'Out Of My Head' are also rather rocking tracks, the latter being the most rocking, all peeling wah guitars from the central riff shaft. The vocals are serviceable, although slightly weak at times, but it is the bass and drums that provide the throbbing pump as the backbone of the songs and provide all the moments of danceability. The artwork is pretty kick-ass, with a blend between Eastern and Western cartoon styles in blue and orange backed on black, a pretty striking image to compliment the music. Generous Maria are a band with good musical ability and they hit the mark with a few of the songs on this sophomore effort, but the album as a whole lacks consistency with song quality. It's both a rip-roaring rollercoaster ride and a Sunday drive with your Gran to Weston Super Mare. One for their fans, but it is unlikely to win them too many new ones. dave e destruction HAINLOOSE – "BURDEN STATE" Elektrohasch Records Ponderous stoner affectations from Germany. Familiarity can on occasion be a welcome pleasure; the ubiquitous cup of tea in the morning, those cyclical, vitriolic rants against execrable Hollywood remakes all afford one a joyous sense of continuity and glancing at the hackneyed, fish-eye image of a vintage amp on the CD inlay one would correctly surmise that Hainloose are studied acolytes of corpulent, re-fried 70's rockage. "Burden State" is a little too-easy on the ear where both the guitar tone and song writing are too nebulous to find much purchase with this particular listener. Sadly, any hope of originality has been usurped by a multitude of default fuzz riffs and their overt reliance on swollen ZZ Top /Fu Manchu shunt ultimately becomes quite tiresome. Admittedly, dotted here and there are a number of quality wah-wah groove-outs, and hefty bass boogaloo's, but these zesty flourishes are undone via their very brevity. The major problem here is Hainloose's distinct lack of authorship, clearly devoted as these desert rockers are to billowing out a hefty analogue fandango, their influences are far too zealous and pronounced to engender any hope of freshness or vitality. When it comes to hemp-headed riff rock any band should at least attempt to out burn Nebula's gutsy 'Dos EP's' [arguably the Apex of gloriously hempen psychedelia] to merit a place amongst the admittedly sparse riff-rock vanguard, and Hainloose's ponderous stoner affectations shall do little to stem the apathy geared towards this rapidly diminishing micro genre. But it has to be said that "Burden State" is a decidedly apropos moniker since I rapidly felt the need to emancipate myself from these burdensome grooves. There is clearly talent here but it is mired beneath a palpable lack of ambition. jason [ BACK TO TOP ]