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MANTIS - "MOONSHINE TABERNACLE"
MINOTAURI - "S/T"
PENTAGRAM - "SHOW 'EM HOW"
RPG - "FULL TIME"
SUPERHEAVYGOATASS - "60.000 YEARS"
SUPLECS - "POWTIN' ON..."
WALL OF SLEEP - "SLOW BUT NOT DEAD"
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MANTIS
"MOONSHINE TABERNACLE" [ CD - Mantisface Records ]
Mantis are a four piece power-boogie combo, whose chunky, 'slowride' grooves are generated by [the magnificently
bearded] Jason Kindred [g-tar / vocals], Brian Clark [bass], Scott Lindell [lead G-tars], Nick
Nance [drums].
One of the fortunate side-effects of being a rock music obsessive is that I'm always looking
for boozy, unpretentious RAWK music, music to gradually ease me out of myself, as nowt
invigorates the soul better than some butt-whoopin', grooved-out, maximum rockage, especially when
played with balls commensurate to the girth of sound.
I know little about Mantis outside of the disc that's currently blaring out of my speakers. On a wild tangent
here, the lead fender-bender, Scott Lindell's picture on the inner sleeve is a peach, it could've been
cut and pasted directly from Richard Linklater's "Dazed & Confused."
Scott looks like a dude who likes his spliff packed as WIDE as his Trans American, and while he's
out drivin' that Max-power, gash magnet to pick up Mantis's monthly stash, the 8 tracks clattering
amongst the Pabst Blue Ribbon strewn floor include, Foghat "Energized", Aerosmith
"Rocks", Grand Funk "S/T", and to keep up with modernity, some battered Soundgarden
cassettes.
Man this dude looks like he's been smokin' tea and drinkin' Dynamite from the wee hours!!! You can
already begin to see the validity of calling the album Moonshine Tabernacle, but
dude, maybe lay off the 'shine until after the photo shoot. Kick ass picture tho.' What does a stoner
rock guitarist look like? LADIES AND GENTLEMEN I GIVE YOU... Scott Lindell. There's goes a
fella who never shirked on having a good time!
I Digress... Mantis are not about wheel re-invention. We've shaken a tail feather here numerous
times before, but then again I've listened to "Sweet Emotion" so many times I could sing
it backwards while immersed in Bat Guano, with Fire Lizards eating out my
asshole, and it loses nuthin.' Sometimes familiarity can be a mighty reassuring
thang!
While the crucible from whence Mantis distill their catchy, bell-bottom, super-shimmy rock
from, may well be a tad dry, there is nonetheless something about the Mantis schtick that
makes a person wanna crack open a sixer, kick back and busy themselves with working up a
healthy Rock N' Roll appetite, as all the Big, fleshy, re-fried 70's rawken roll riffs
come off the bone real nice'n easy, SMOOTH WORK FELLAS!
J. Kindred and S. Lindell work well of each other, and from Scott's clearly terminal case
of 'Hemp-eye', they obviously have as much fun making their music as I did listening to it!
What lifts "Moonshine Tabernacle" above the Cloner Rock slurry is the obvious passion these
fellas play their music with - and Brian Clark [bass] and Nick Nance [drums] are to be commended
for doing some quality work... KUDOS!
"Moonshine Tabernacle" is some fun, down home, unpretentious, lead-bellied rock and roll, and
on some days that's all a fella needs. Mantis have a boisterous, swing and swagger to their
Hemp-friendly beat-downs, yet still manage to surprise with you with rapid gear
changes where they crank up the voltage and deliver, sweet, wide-load thunder blasts like
the utterly stance-worthy, proto-Helmet riff to 'Hang man.'
These be some clever shine-heads as to end your album with a such a prime, gnarly-ass tune
is tinged with genius, for the simple reason that I played the fucker through again as
soon as 'Hang Man' finished.
Another area where the band come up trumps is with the production, nothing low
rent here, and while it is clear this band don't have access to vast to the
big bucks, but that didn't stop Ryan Adkins and the band themselves do a classy
job of bringing forth the rock with no concessions to the lack of budget, BIG, RUGGED, FLUID ROCK SOUND.
GOOD WORK LADS!
Admittedly this is a familiar brew, but pre-Judge not and drink heartily my friends, as
the Mantis conjure up boss tunage that keeps a fella comin' back for more.
For fans of Clutch, Soundgarden, Sunride, Dozer, Moustache, Halfway to Gone, Throttlerod, ETC
will dig on Moonshine Tabernacle's thunder-groove. Mantis do have that high-toned 'Small Stone'
sound.
Tracks of merit: 'Chum the waters', 'Furnace of Desire' [the one and only time they get
Kyuss on your ass, but it's a sweet concoction], 'Adam & Evil' [maximum vocoder action, baby!]
and 'Hangman.'
STANCE FACTOR MID-TO-MAXIMUM STANCE.
jason
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MINOTAURI
"S/T" [ CD - Black Widow ]
"Playing doom metal is like a crusade... but instead of cross we have the electric axe" -Doom Metal Alchemy,
Minotauri.
Doom. Why does this potent sub-genre remain so un-popular, outside of a few esoteric
music webzines the mainstream is oblivious to the manifold delights of elephantine, sepulchral riffage, coupled
with epic and generally portentous singing. So it's always a feeling of preaching to the
perverted when it comes to reviewing a doom album, which is a darn shame as I genuinely feel
Minotauri are woefully undeserving of a lifetime of relegation to the world's least
perused rack in the record shop.
Unaware of their previous split with fellow Finnish doom gods, Reverend Bizarre, this their
debut album is my first exposure to their music, so I approached this album with considerably more
curiosity than I generally do. The band are comprised of three suitably intense looking Finnish
men, Ari Honkonen [guitar / vocals], Tommi Pakarinen [bass] and Vijami Kinnunen [drums], thus
generating a full on doom power trio, with a hefty onus on POWER!
The opening Tombstone crunch of 'Singing in the Grave' is a good litmus test of whether
you are going to enjoy Minotauri's idiosyncratic take on Doom or not. The track opens with a suitably
creepy yet muted keyboard intro, which neatly melts into a Candlemassian-riff of quite considerable
dimensions.
Ari Honkonen is one of those rare doom metal guitarists who has eschewed
the signature, dense, buzz-tone of Wino, which is a boon, as too many young G-tar slingers
currently ape or misinterpret Wino's legendary sound. Instead, he churns out a taught, and decidedly
bludgeonous, Mats Bjoerkman-esque ALL METAL riff... which does send one back in a delirious vertiginous
spin all the back to the heady days of 81' 85' an era whose magnificent sonic excesses are
marvellously replicated here.
If you are in your 30's+ you won't need your doom for dummies guidebook [Doom For Dummies is
as yet unavailable] to work out what Ari & co are attempting to do here. They successfully capture
the anachronistic fervour of early-St Vitus with a healthy thunder-crack of Candlemass bombast. The only
possibly fly in the mead is Ari's languorous vocalising, which doesn't have the crazed-preacher, graveyard
posturing of Bobby Liebling or the frantic wailing intensity of vintage Ozzy.
These lack of vocal theatrics, and his obvious Finnish-burr may well put some people off, but
bizarrely I actually really started to dig on this "relaxed" approach... and his gloriously monotone
delivery of "I'm lying in my Grave... I'm singing a lonely song..." amused me greatly. Believe
me, it's a blast singing along with Ari -I'm not being facetious here, I really got into and
belted out the refrain of "I'm lying in my Grave... I'm singing a lonely song" with much gusto, so frankly
I can't actually remember the last time I had so much fun grooving out to a doom album.
Some might see this as a musical paradox, but, FUCK IT DOOM CAN BE FUN AS WELL, KIDDIES! Bass player
Tommi and Drummer Viljami supply a rock solid, if unspectacular rhythm section whose very unobtrusiveness
makes for a powerful, sturdy backdrop to Ari's quality doom riffing, whose solo's are never gratuitous and
their brevity and lack of ostentation is actually quite refreshing and perfectly suited to Minotauri's
zesty NWOBHM Doom attack.
This epic release is a stunning collection of all the Minotauri material thus far, and happily
nothing sounds rushed or cobbled together. The opening 8 tracks blend comfortably into the
earlier recorded EP and remaining limited released singles. So this is a one-stop all you can eat, Doom feast, and
Minotauri don't skimp on the meat.
After repeated listens there two clear shades to the collection tracks 1-8 are more clearly
influenced by NWOBHM whereas the EP [tracks 9-12] are all about Dave Chandler-era Vitus -the guitars are in a
lower gear, and all about THEE CHUG OF DOOME! So while this sonic journey is extensive and weighty
it is anything but dull.
There is absolutely no doubting the sincerity of Minotauri, but their take on Doom is anything
but mawkish or overtly fan-boy, and their subtle use of atmospheric keyboards never
bog the song down in cheesy sentiment, but adds just the right amount of emotional gravitas
morbid metal requires to generate the pungent, fetid reek of exhumation that lifts the Doom-worshipping
listener out of the humdrum and envelops you into the Stygian, heavy metal VOID which
Minotaur evoke so well! Minotauri crunch out a furious credo of "Epicus Doomicus
Metallicus" and I for one BELIEVE!
Tracks of merit: 'Singing In The Grave Cemetery Shadows', 'Doom Metal Alchemy', 'Backstabber'and 'Paid Love.'
[Doom riffs in excel-sis -the doom-laden, Uber-Vitus chug of 'Paid Love' is a fucking joy, and the driving
pulse of 'Cemetery Shadows' is as infectious as a weeping canker]
Fans of St Vitus, Pentagram, Candlemass, Witchfinder General should be all over Minotauri like guts
on Messiah Marcolin.
STANCE FACTOR: MAXIMUM DOOM-DANCE STANCE!
jason
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PENTAGRAM
"Show 'em How" [ CD - Black Widow ]
To the enlightened few Pentagram are one of the primary architects of heavy metal, and clear progenitors
of doom metal, while to others they remain a total mystery. A real dichotomy, as how on
earth can a band [or more specifically the sole remaining original member, the skeletal Bobby Liebling] who have
triumphantly survived countless harsh travails merely to release a meagre, yet astonishingly influential
back catalogue mean so little to people outside the hermetic, subterranean world of doom?
Its unforgivable that, Pentagram one of the proto-metal trailblazers should be relegated to such a lowly position in
the musical canon, especially since the contemporary heavy metal arena is polluted with foppish
dilettantes and processed, cash-hungry coat-tail riders.
Fortunately this spurious label is ill suited to vocal iconoclast, Bobby Liebling, whose ossified image
on the CD artwork apparently belies any truth in the rumour that he remains among the living! If the godfather
of doom didn't look so dessicated, and downright cadaverous as the honourable Mr. Liebling, one couldn't
help but feel a little short changed, which gloriously doesn't apply to the latest and most
welcome Pentagram recording, "Show 'em How" which in my humble opinion is considerably more
than a fine return to form.
Even if you dissolved the legendary persona of Bobby Liebling himself, you would still be
clutching 10 earthy slabs of emphatic, hard-rockin', lead-bellied, psyched-out doom, of course the
point is moot as this IS PENTAGRAM which pushes it up into the dizzy realms of musical superlatives.
In the past Bobby Liebling has chosen his musical acolytes wisely and does so again, as the current
Pentagram line-up is burgeoning with the manifold talents of Kelly Carmichael [Internal Void, guitars], Adam
Heinzman [Internal Void, bass], and Mike Smail [Penance / Dream Death, drums] which on paper reads as
a veritable Doom super-group and gloriously transmogrifies into some magnificently low-slung, grooved-
out doom.
On a personal level I am a HUGE fan of Kelly Carmichael's impassioned, psychedelic, chunk
blowing riffage and can't readily think of another six stringer with all the relevant subtleties
and talent for a incendiary, psyched-out lead to complement this iconic outfit, and within seconds
of the bombastic opener, 'Wheel of fortune' his weighty, boogie-bomber power
chords are ample proof that 'Show em How' was gonna do just that. DOOM ON!
'Wheel of Fortune' is a stunning interpretation of the 70's rough hewn doom-stone, and Pentagram circa
2005 not only give it a righteo us polish, but the defiantly boisterous and fleshy
Kozlowski production inflates the track with considerately more heft than the original
and allows for a synchronous melding betwixt the tracks of old; 'Wheel of Fortune', 'Star Lady', Cat walk, 'Last
day's Here' and the new, fat-bottomed doom-adelia, orchestrated with Gibson maestro, Kelly Carmichael.
The extra-muscled, redux versions of 1970's Pentagram should be taken on their own quite
considerable merit, as they don't interfere with the pleasure gleaned from the
scratchier classics of ore, but successfully adds an ambiguous, timeless
quality to, 'Show 'Em How' making it impossible to define which era this Pentagram recording
belongs in.
Besides, such banal categorisation is redundant when discussing Pentagram since
they exist in some fantasmagoric doomiverse, beyond conventional space and time -forcefully
powered by a voluminous, tube-amp tone, which coupled with Bobby Liebling's Faustian vocals
and knack for writing affecting graveyard mantras make for a supersensory, head-nodding
extravaganza!
The vigorous interplay between Mike Smail's propulsive, mountainous drums and
Adam Heinzmans', sub-crust, cavernous bass playing enriches all of the tracks with an
electrifying core of Rock N' Roll urgency, and while there are intoxicating and pungent
echoes of the G-Force psychedelia of both Penance and Internal Void, their gravitational
bombast consolidates this new Pentagram line-up into a musical powerhouse of some
considerable grandeur.
Considering the smack-head lifestyle of Bobby Liebling, his profoundly bedevilled and
inimitable vocal range is on splendid form here, and if anything his leathery, over-medicated
larynx adds a textural, sonorous, and decidedly eerie subtext to these twilight, hell-stomping
epistles.
"Show 'Em How" is one of those genuinely rewarding albums whose initial
enigma unfolds gradually during successive playings, and by the tenth spin you
begin to wonder how you ever lived without it.
Fave tracks: 'Elektra Glide'and 'Show 'em How.'
STANCE FACTOR: MAXIMUM DOOM-GENIUS STANCE
jason
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RPG
"FULL TIME" [ CD - Arclight Records ]
Does 13 blistering tracks in under 30 minutes sound good? HELL FUCKIN' YEAH!
Tony Brown [bass], Matt Conner [vox / guitar], Mike Marunde [drums] and John Partin [guitar] make
up the four man wreckin' crew, R.P.G and outside of their enigmatic moniker -this is where the ambiguity
ends as R.P.G rock with all the lusty vigour of a blood-eyed, rutting stag.
A few frantic, snotty g-tar blasts into album opener 'Nazi Reader' and any record label 'BLAH' is rendered
impotent, as the band's delicious, amphetamine scuzz rock laudably drowns out any disingenuous claims...
R.P.G succeed at creating the kind of highway-to-hell, Hill Billy bluster that evokes the
good-time, speed-ball, Gibson overdrive of skellcats like 'The Supersuckers', Ten Pound Hammer', and 'The
Lee Harvey Oswald band' ergo these mothersuckers crank out an infectious, Semtex-kick of incendiary
three-chord, hot-roddin', punkoid skuzz jams that are guaranteed to inspire
instantaneous motor-city madman rock antics in even the most jaded of folk.... and that was only
their first fucking track, COR, LUMME!!!!
So for those of you with delicate constitutions be warned as 'Full Time' is apropos, since
Brown / Conner / Marunde / Partin are no rock n' roll part-timers! HELL NO! as they ooze all the
devilish rock bombast of the Sex Pistols... You crave a heady and authentic charge of
bellicose rock and roll? Look no further...
To say "Full Time" rocks is about as facile as stating that "Never Mind the Bollocks" was
merely a good album... TISH AND BUM SMITHERY, Steve Jones wrote some of the
tightest, propulsive and fist-in-gob-est riffs of all fucking time, and the R.P.G-tar tag team of
Conner / Partin are clearly forged from the same raw, spare, punk mettle as there is
no room for flash or filigree here, just understated, deadly, sinewy power.
The brute force of a Pistols G-tar attack is no more apparent than on the hyper-kinetic spunk fuzz
of 'Untuck It' and the greazy, mega-stooge G-tar solo will sear deep burn tracks across the front
of your reeling frontal lobes... YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! RIFF BURN INFERNO, BABY!
'Paralysed' is a supreme example of why every serious [or stupid!] rock fan should own this
album as it's gotta kick akin to an intravenous hit of The Hellacopters coupled with a simultaneous
cocaine enema -Mike Marunde's dexterous drums fibrillate like an engorged heart, lurching
under a potent surge of a dangerously potent speed-ball and Conner / Partin's protean strummage
is an eloquent charge of primal rock simplicity...
R.P.G riffage is vacuum-tight, hardcore and pounds relentlessly at your
head-piece with all the brutality of rape ape, Mike Tyson... that's right Ladiez and
Sideburns, R.P.G's "Full Time" contains 13, two minute knock-outs, and they are clearly
the undefeated champions of G-Force riff rock, with Matt Conner's stunning vocals being a
contender for the next years' golden larynx. Yep, this dude can bring it on! a voice with
the piquancy of a too-strong Margarita.
'Crash Bang Boom' is aptly titled as this shrapnel blast of high toned rock blast is
the auditory equivalent of a motorway car pile-up at 200mph, wheels screech, rubber squeals,
bones shatter, eyes burst, charred musculature and twisted metal explode in a volatile heat
haze of meat and petroleum.... hurts sooooo good, I can't wait to do it again!
Production on the album is DY-NA-MITE!!! The guitars sting like crazed hornets while the
muscular rhythm section rumbles with all the delirious horsepower of a ten-ton monster truck. To
put it this way, if more albums' sounded as good as "Full Time" then the sonic firmament
would sparkle that much brighter. PHEW!!! WHEEEEEEEE!!!
"Full Time" is an adrenalized, Rock 'N Roll death match, with killer hooks
blastin' out at you like white-hot buckshot!
Album Highlights? The whole bastard album is a highlight.
Will appeal to fans of Sex Pistols, Hellacopters, Supersuckers, Scissorfight, Throttlerod, Turbonegro etc
STANCE: MAXIMUM BALLS-TO-THE-WALL STANCE
jason
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SUPERHEAVYGOATASS
"60.000 YEARS" [ CD - Arclight Records ]
In all fairness the first SHGA album was a paltry affair, thus my anticipation for
the follow up was somewhat muted, but just as one shouldn't judge the literary merit of a
novel by it's cover, the same must also be said of maligning a band because of humble
beginnings is an equally spurious maxim.
"60.000 years" is an apt moniker as it could also describe the vast distance this brawny charge
of whiskey-burnt, low-slung, southern boogie is from their almost demo-like "S/T."
Sometimes wheel re-invention is a refreshing tonic, otherwise we wouldn't get the exotic delights
of Deerhoof, Fantomas, Old Time Relijun etc, but the polar opposite can be equally as
rewarding and the fabulous "60.000 years" is a prime example of familiarity being a damn good thing.
When I first heard, "60.000 years" I was struck by how indebted SHGA are to the gritty, hard
rockin', genius of Ricky Medlocke and his southern rawk powerhouse, Blackfoot, whose incendiary
albums, "Tomcattin" & "Marauder" are replete with the kind of boozy, freewheeling, fire & brimstone, heavy-load
gibson rock outs, that have inspired a generation of Denim-clad musicians and
clearly SHGA are no exception as this boisterous and highly energised collection of
music proves quite succinctly.
Russel Abbot [guitar / vocals], Derek Halfmann [guitar], Tim Hurt [drums]and Brent
Boepple [bass] throw down some beefy, southern grooves with album opener, 'Backside' and keep
the rockin' furnace, stoked and white-hot for the remainder of the album.
Each Superheavygoatass opus is redolent with the gutsy guitar assault of Abbot and Halfmann whose decidedly
vigorous take on YEE-HAW Heavy is destined to be the rambunctious heart an' soul of many a future
alcoholic hootenanny.
The glaring difference between this and their previous album is that SHGA now have a musical
identity as striking as their comedic handle, and a seemingly effortless ability to
forge thick, infectious boogie riffs that provide the heady propulsion to many of
their swifter tracks.
These girth-some guitars bounce and shimmy like stoned beach bunnies on
a blisteringly hot summer's day, and each demonstrative swathe of bad-boy G-tar
fuzz lifts you gloriously above all the mundane travails of city life and delivers a micro
vacation to some wild, Texan Hoedown, where good humoured, 100% proof, Rock N Roll high jinks are
had by one an' all.
At many junctures you are pleasantly struck by the obvious affection these musicians have
for vintage ZZ Top jams as many of the lush sounding, deep fried, bloozy-woozy-fuzz tones
have Billy Gibbon's idiosyncratic cattle mark seared muscle deep. And SHGA sticks man, Tim Hurt makes a
splendid racket with many a funky Frank Beard shuffle, which of course only adds to the overall
entertainment.
Both the production and sound mix are of a vertiginously high standard, but this would appear
to be one of the benefits of working with Arclight records, as while they are currently only
be a small indie concern, the blazing Rock N' Roll sounds generated by Arclight's superlative
roster of bands are all blessed with an electrifying, juggernaut heavy mix, and "60,000 years" thunders
out of your speakers with molten, Zeus-like vigour.
In grossly reductive terms "60.000 Years" is a fiery shit-kicker with gargantuan size 17 footwear, and
these monstrous boots are gonna stomp a Mack Truck-sized hole in that big Ol' goat's ass with some
galloping, Bell-Bottomed G-Tar chug, spliced with much Amp bruisin', down home pickin' and
lead-bellied, Confederate Boogie... Sheeeeeit! This be some bitchin' rattlesnake rock for
the closet red neck in us all!
Fave tracks: 'SSOB', a brazen, punchy slab of retro boogie, thick with a pendulous, nod-friendly Kyussoid
riff that is exactly what the doctor ordered!. 'Soundman, 'another gonzo track fleshed out with a
killer Eric Larson thunder-groove, HELL YEAH! This baby's got more wide-load chug than a
steamboat fulla James Hetfields! and Brent Boepple's throaty bass growl is comparable to that
of a pissed off Gorilla. A Righteously heavy clambake an' make no mistake.
"60.000years" will unequivocally appeal to fans of Dixie Witch, 60 Watt Shaman, Blackfoot, Raging Slab and
A.T.P etc.
STANCE FACTOR: MAXIMUM GENERAL LEE STANCE!
jason
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SUPLECS
"POWTIN' ON THE OUTSIDE, PAWTY ON THE INSIDE" [ CD - Nocturnal Records ]
Two years since the release of "Sad Songs... Better Days" and it's time for the release of
the latest Suplecs album, "Powtin'On The Outside, Pawty On The Inside." As much fun
as "Sad Songs..." was, outside of the wondrous 'Unstable'/'She's So Heavy' cover, it didn't make
a profound impression on me, so it is with much joy and more than a little surprise to
find out that, 'Powtin' On The Outside, Pawty On The Inside" is a crack-addictive, muscular, Rawkus
Roll album which shows Suplecs in a FAR brighter light than previously.
Gone are [almost] all the stoner-rock posturing / cliches, gloriously replaced by some high
quality songwriting and engine-block heavy, douche-bag, punk an' roll. Admittedly the ill-considered
and woefully generic album art is a trifle off putting, as you erroneously expect
the contents to be analogous to yet another dreary, cloner rock album -on the contrary you have a
brash sounding, brisk amalgamation of the likes of Finland's streamlined and uber rockin' Sunride
blended with the dense, abrasive, balls out trucker rock of Tad or Alabama Thunderpussy.
WELL SHIT ON ME, THIS ALBUM'S A HEAP O' FUN!
While "Powtin' On The Outside, Pawty On The Inside" is still replete with fuzzed-to-excess, elephantine, G-tar
beat-downs, you aren't swamped with overtly derivative Iommi grooves, since the album is
charged with just enough propulsive, chicken-fried, wide-load, Gibson G-tar to get ones
head floppin' about as if your neck bones had been replaced with over-cooked rhubarb stalks.
And Suplecs also have a fortunate tendency to keep their collective foot down on the pedal
while generating hooky melodies and memorable, Marshall Amp blowing power riffage, and
tracks that echo in the mind long after the CD has stopped spinning.
The album is a surprisingly diverse affair and consistently entertaining, as it effortlessly
segues betwixt the H.O.F skull-fuckery of the riff-swollen and aptly titled, 'Tsunami' and the
divine, hook-laden, urgent, punk pop of, 'Gotta Pain', which is guaranteed to get y'all pogoing, an' leapin'
around the room like a mutant-sized, blood-happy bed bug.
Fuck it, this punky gem is so bastardly catchy it should come with a syringe-full of vaccine! And this
is the album's true genius as it genuinely confounds all expectations, successfully assimilating divergent
musical styles and cleverly dovetailing them together, so pendulously heavy, jam band excess, boozy, ye-haw G-tar
shit-kickerey, breezy punk melodies, and high octane Sub Pop thunder grooves all morph into one
righteously compulsive Rock N' Roll bum fight! Making 'Powtin' On The Outside, Pawty On The Inside' clearly the
ultra intoxicating feel good hit of the summer. AMEN BROTHER!
C.O.C Helmsman and all round southern rock god, Pepper Keenan is to be congratulated on
maximising the considerable and previously untapped potential of Splecs' music, as all ten tracks
burn with the efficacy of a Jack Daniel's soaked beard. Production is crisp and rhino
heavy, the bass low, menacing and penetrating, with both the gonzoid guitars and powder-keg drums
delivering ample, organic, rock and roll thrills. There is nothing antiseptic or contrived about the
album, just alco-fuelled good times X 10!
Album highlight: 'Gotta Pain' [man, I rocked this tune so many times it got fuckin' silly!] and
'Cities of The Dead.'
For fans of Sunride, Alabama Thunderpussy, Orange Goblin and Tad.
STANCE FACTOR: MAXIMUM DOGS BALLS STANCE
jason
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WALL OF SLEEP
"SLOW BUT NOT DEAD" [ CD - PsycheDOOMelic Records ]
This is the debut album from Hungary's flag waving doom warriors, Wall of Sleep and if you
are a fan of thick-set guitar riffing these Herculean bricks of doom may well be for you.
Wall of Sleep are a five-piece: Gabor Holdampf [ vocals], Sandor Fuleki [guitars], Andras
Greff [guitars], Ferenc Marek [bass] and Szabolcs "Szasa" Szolcsanyi [drums / percussion] and
combined they make some tasty, riffy Doom metal.
Outside of the immediate, pile-driving ballast of Andras and Sandors low-geared, behemoth guitar
tones, its obvious that they've stuck gold with Szabolcs' rock solid drumming, as this band
know how to generate and lock down some infectiously brain-curdling grooves, keeping it
Tombstone heavy and rivet tight until the fade out.
"Slow But Not Dead's" album opener, "Far Away From Sunrise" is a choice and bruising example
of what powerhouse musicians Wall of Sleep are, coz' it is propelled by one of the most
gruesome, meaty, head bobbin' lurches I have had the pleasure of dooming out to in a long time.
This riff is utterly relentless and so infectious, that when the track ended I hastily searched
my body for angry, black doom pustules, and along with Las Cruces's crushing 'Behemoth' this belongs
amongst the pantheon of all time killer thunder grooves [it really is that good].
Wall of Sleep successfully invoke all the trance-like disorientation quality doom generates
deep within the Sabbath aficionado's brain, and, naturally a similar, delirious state of massive
Riff intoxication to anyone else who favours roaring, double-barrelled projectiles of vast, glutinous
doom chords.
Whereas some bands lose power with melody, Wall of Sleep combine with both with great
efficacy, a sublime example of this is the uber-wino, grimy swing of 'The Very Same.'
This catchy as fuck, psyched-out power chord got me off my ass and into air guitar stance before you
could say 'Sweet Leaf'... which adds considerable time on writing this review, but
hey, if a fella' needs to rock... He needs to fuckin' rock, and Wall of Sleep deliver, baby.
Wall of Sleep also have the gift of surprise. As some melodic doom band's have a
tendency to create a uniformly even selection of slow burning head grooves, but instead
these deafening Hungarians occasionally and quite gleefully grab you firmly by the throat
and drag you mercilessly though an impenetrable, deep primordial riff pool ala
Crowbar, or early Cathedral, especially on the albums' closer, 'I Sleep' which
has at it's sooty core, a lumbering, gargantuan riff that could quite easily engulf
the western hemisphere with it's monstrous, Gibson-zilla girth.
And if that wasn't enough, the demonic duo of Sandor / Andras sludge out the album's second
heaviest groove with, 'Ornaments of heaven'... HOLY IOMMI, WHO ART IN VITUS, HALLOWED BE THY
WEINRICH, this is a 100% devil certified, DOOM-AS-NECK-DESTROYER RIFF!
Fuck it, the brute force of this grinding power chord could shatter wolverine's, adamantine
musculature with it's ungodly sonic ballast -and the iommi breakdown near the close of the track is so
good, I had to leap away from the PC and throw down some hardcore Sabbath
shapes.... HELLLL YEAAAHHHHH"
Another mention must be given to Szabolcs drumming on this track, he hammers those skins like he
wants to drive 'em to the earth's core! Gabor Holdampf's bitter-sweet vocals sail above all
the heaviosity quite magnificently... And last but of no means least, Ferenc Marek's bass playing
ties all the bombast together with consummate power and skill.
Deep Breath...YOU DIG ON DOOM, THIS ALBUM IS ESSENTIAL. PERIOD.
Tracks to look out for: 'Far Away From Home', 'The Very Same', 'Ornaments of
Heaven', 'Inside Garden', 'I sleep' [this riff truly is the Hand of Doom].
Will cause dizziness to fans of: Spirit Caravan, Shepherd, Las Cruces, Solitude Aeturnus, Cathedral,
and the mighty Sabbath.
jason
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