EL GUAPO STUNTTEAM - "BATTLES ACROSS THE STEREO SPECTRUM"
Suburban Records
Fun-filled hardrock with a southern twang from Belgium.
Do you think you know what good 'ol fashioned hard rock is? Well, I'm sorry but YOU ARE WRONG! YOU DON'T HAVE
THE FAINTEST CLUE! So, here's a little secret: EL GUAPO STUNTTEAM!
Their latest release "Battles Across the Stereo Spectrum" is a relentless, stop-go, psychotic frenzy. A head-on
collision between Lynyrd Skynyrd and early Maiden with Thin Lizzy takin' care of the wreckage. These boys
are here to put the hard back into rock, and they do it with a genuine, southern twang. That in
itself is pretty wild since El Guappo Stuntteam are from Belgium!
Here's a quick checklist of their qualifications: buff guitar progressions, wicked tempo changes, fret board
acrobatics, wailing guitar leads, diesel-fueled drumming, a non-stop vocal delivery, heavy riffage, incredible
timing and execution and an overall feeling of FUN! And that's just in the first song. You think
you're up for the entire album? I'll bet you are.
dr.jones
FOOZ - "SPACE IS DARK... IT IS SO ENDLESS"
Alone Records
Fooz - Rest In Peace.
Welcome, children of the stars, to the musical spirit of Fooz. "Space Is Dark... It Is So Endless" is an ethereal
journey into the very heart and soul of exaltation. Originally to be released as an acoustic EP,
Fooz decided to go all-out and include all of their recorded hymns. This CD is split into two
very different, yet very pleasing, sound modes.
Tracks one through six are the 'unplugged' versions of some of their previous recordings. These songs are
sandwiched between two cover tracks: Hawkwind's "Space is Deep" and Pink
Floyd's "Astronomy Domine". The cover songs alone show the versatility and talent of Fooz, as they are
performed with utmost precision and grace.
It's easy to see how Fooz was inspired by the bands they chose to cover. Tracks two through five
wisp along with a smooth elegance that is pure 60's psychedelia. The acoustics are
crisp. The vocals are clean and harmonic. The percussion is presented in true stereo. Think modern
day recording techniques coupled with the spirit of music's past.
If "Space Is Dark..." is your first exposure to Fooz [as it was for me], starting at track seven
there is a delightful surprise: The amps have been turned on. We are now treated to the brand
of rock 'n roll that has helped put Fooz on the map -guitar-driven glory, baby. It's time to get down
to business!
Fooz's electric sound embraces the 70's of early Deep Purple and Uriah Heep. The vocals
remain clean and crisp. The percussion is still presented in true stereo. All the instrumentation
has more of a presence.
Thankfully the grace and style of the first half of "Space Is Dark..." is not drowned out by the amplitude
of the 2nd half. Plus, a great sense of deja-vu will happen when you hear a song from the first
half of the CD, only now played in its original form.
Versatile, timeless and above all, a great listen from beginning to end, "Space Is Dark... It Is So Endless" is
Fooz's farewell to the world. May the spirit of this album be carried on through the eternities.
dr.jones
FROM BEYOND - "S/T"
Self Released
Sturdy stonerrock from Canada
>From Beyond kick out a three track demo that holds up surprisingly well, given that their music
is standard stonerrock fare. They play a heady mix of big riffs, big beats and add some extra
percussion parts that fit nicely in a set with Kyuss and Goatsnake. What really makes this
demo for me, is that From Beyond's sound isn't derivative of the aforementioned bands. In fact, the band
comes up with their own take on heavy stonerrock and they do it with style, adding a fresh
approach to the over-saturated genre. And it puts From Beyond definitely in 'the bands to
watch' category. A full-length is much anticipated.
walter
From Beyond's John Vine talks about the band's take on stonerrock.
"We're influenced by stonerrock from the 60's to the twenty first century. We enjoy and try to
incorporate many stoner styles into our music: psychedelica, jam, fuzz, riff rock, doom and even a bit
of prog. For us, stonerrock equals groove rock, and that's the kind of music we hope to
create."
Any chance of a record deal?
"Well, we have shopped our ep to various independent and major labels in North America, but nobody
has taken the bait. Signing with a label would be very cool, but we'd be just as excited
about a distribution deal, where we record and press the CDs and then have a label handle the
sales stuff."
What's the band currently up to?
"We're still writing, jamming and looking into the possibility of a full-length CD for 2006."
Click here to get in touch with From Beyond
GRAND MAGUS - "WOLF'S RETURN"
Rise Above Records
The most essential and downright heroic metal album of 2005.
I have a predilection to expound in over zealous prose when it comes to reviewing
albums by a much loved band -where ones bias veers towards the hyperbolic, but in all honesty
I have to say that the third, Grand Magus opus, "Wolf's Return" is an EXEMPLARY heavy metal album –an unbridled
ode to the ennobling joys of fists-aloft, whirling dervish mullet metal.
It is a magnificently rampant, dreadnaught heavy, bona fide classic that positively crackles with the
kind of electrifying riffage that any serious guitarist would drop a nut for. Eleven gleaming, elemental
tracks of titanium hard, blistering, fat-bellied metal, replete with Norse land heroics and
swollen with such exhilarant, hair raising anthems that Rob Halford's bald plate would be verdant with
flaxen curls mere seconds into the titular track...
"Wolf's Return" is quite possibly one of the most essential and downright heroic metal
albums of 2005. Yes, I know how gibbering and fan-boy that sounds, but dash your cynicism
and allow the supremely ballistic majesty of album opener, "Kingslayer" to transport you to a
foreboding, icy, gore-soaked battlefield, where frenzied, sinuous Vikings vanquish their
quavering, limbless foes to the euphoric tones of JB's cavernous-sounding flying V.
The mellifluous yet eye-wateringly heavy riff piloting this finely honed track is a stunning
guitar masterstroke, which once heard coils itself around your cerebellum with all the
tenacity of a predatory snake.
However much I enjoy the early Manowar albums, both their innate ludicrousness, and risible
posturing ultimately precludes them from true heavy metal greatness, whereas JB, Fox & Frederik have
forgone any cartoonish macho. Instead of lurid theatrics, these hirsute Swedish heavy rock
alchemists have crafted the kind of soaring, breathtaking, pulse pounding heavy metal that
engenders such a dizzying feeling of intoxication in the listener that "Wolf's Return" should
come with a screw cap and a government health warning!
Should you worship at the altar of pyrotechnic metal, then quaff deep of this riff
bejewelled, heavy metal chalice, as the heady ingredients within are guaranteed to
raise the weary soul to such vertiginous heights, you may balk at the prosaic pleasures
afforded by lesser examples of balls-out metal.
Three albums old and Grand Magus already have an enviable and unassailable musical legacy, these
proto-doom overseers have blossomed into true heavy metal icons and one can only drool
in anticipation at what JB's monstrous power trio have in store for us next...
Until then my broadsword is held aloft in humble tribute to one of the finest metal bands of the
modern age... GRAND MAGUS I SALUTE THEE!
For fans of: DENIM, LEATHER & HEAVY METAL BROTHERHOOD!
jason
GRAFTON - "BLIND HORSE CAMPAIGN"
Dead Canary Records
Foot-stomping rock 'n roll
I'm proud to be a citizen of Ohio. It takes a special breed of people to live here. Why? Because, Ohians
kick ass at everything. Say hello to Grafton, they are no exception to kickassness. Hailing
from our mighty capital city of Columbus, Grafton have been around for practically eons. The band's latest
release, "Blind Horse Campaign", is a stripped down, rockin' kick to the nuts.
Consider them a kind of uber-power trio: Lou Poster on Guitars and Vocals, Jason McKiernan on
drums, and Donovan Roth on bass. These three gentlemen are here to pummel
your face with unbridled rock 'n roll spiced with hints of rockabilly and punk, all driven
by McKiernan's kick-ass battery.
Memorable and very, very catchy, "Blind Horse Campaign" has the confidence and solid-foundation that
makes an album like this worth coming back to. It brings out the SUMBITCH in all of us. Thumbs
up, brothers!! OHIO REPRESENT!
dr.jones
HEAVY LORD - "THE HOLY GRAIL"
Self Released
Dutch doomsters Heavy Lord make a strong claim for a
full-length with this well-crafted demo.
Doom, doom and more doom. Well, doom with a kick, really. The band's hard hitting drums keep the
faster-than-usual pace as the blisterings riffs chop their way through the passing seconds. There's also
lots of feedback and guitar-sustain as well as growling vocals which sets these Dutch-doomsters apart from
most of their traditional doom peers. Instead, Heavy Lord will appeal to fans of shredded-throat singers
like Burning Witch, Eyehategod, Iron Monkey and Thee Plague of Gentlemen. "The Holy Grail" is pretty well executed, and if the typical doom is too slow for your liking, then
keep an eye out for this demo. Hopefully the band will release a full-length, Heavy Lord is up to it.
dr.jones
HONKY - "BALLS OUT INN"
Small Stone Records
Brand new album from fucked up, Texan-uberpimps, blending
scabby stoner grind and primal grooves to maxium effect.
Led by onetime Butthole Surfer Jeff Pinkus, Honky is the sonic culmination of all things Texan; think ZZ Top
playing your favorite titty bar, think the Butthole Surfers wrecking big' ol cars in the desert, think
the Rev. Horton Heat fucking up the blues.
On their first album for Detroit's (?!) Small Stone Records, called "Balls Out Inn" Honky is waiting
for you to dig right in. From opener "Love To Smoke Your Weed", these Texan uberpimps go for the
throat and don't let up. Their twisted take on scabby stoner rock grind will keep you
in a stranglehold for the enitre album. Add to that the guest slide and
acoustic guitars of Big Sugar's Gordie Johnson and Honky's leaving you messed up and
worn out down in the Lone Star State after a good ol' shoot out! Hell yeah!!!
walter
GONZALEZ - "TORERO"
Self Released
Solid second album from these American stoners.
Gonzalez returns with their latest release "Torereo." This album is big, crunchy and leaves a
satisfying aftertaste. It heeds the quirky vibe set forth by Queens of the Stone Age, coupled
with the drive of a freshly-fueled Fu Manchu. The instrumentation is strong and the
performance is passionate. Never a dull moment. Righteous tunes.
dr.jones
HYATARI - "The Light Carriers"
Codebreaker Records
Sign of great things from US doom/drone/dirge outfit.
This IMMENSE album caught me entirely unawares as it immediately engulfed me with it’s colossal, merciless
and downright stultifying heaviness. These US drone shamans concoct a truly bruising amalgamation
of Boris-era Melvins and Neurosis coupled with the glacial brain melt of Justin
Brodricks’, depressive mong riffs.
Hyatari’s "The Light Carriers" is an epic, druggy, doomy exodus through a disorientating
mindscape of coruscating solar winds and bowdlerising earth tremors. The opening instrumental
track plays out like a wailing, terrified, bovine Mogwai choking in a reeking vat of acid, as each
gangrenous swathe of molasses bass and black hole dense, subterranean guitars
immediately engender a glorious state of fearful disorientation. And the remainder of the
album has the unstoppable momentum of a catastrophic avalanche, but instead of loose, powder snow
you have the utter devastation of molten metal, engulfing everything in its oozing, impenetrable
wake.
Hyatari have the dubious honour of making Yob sound like the Spin Doctors... So put down whatever doom / drone / dirge
album you currently have a penchant for as I can guarantee that Hyatari’s incredible "The Light Carriers" transcends
anything recently generated within the idiom of doom / drone / metal, as this is without doubt
one of my favourite doom / drone albums in recent memory. And as long as I can physically take it I shall
be blasting out these shamanistic crusts of devil drone for many years to come -for a largely instrumental
album, it’s subtle and canny use of planetoid-heavy dynamics never outstays it’s welcome, on the
contrary, I could happily have drowned in another 7 tracks with nary a complaint.
The album is worth the asking price alone for the seismic overload that is "Fourth Realm." Mac Walker’s
bedevilled guitar churns out a sickeningly promethean drone that should have fans
of Khanate / Boris in a state of near apoplexy [well, it did me!].
For fans of Neurosis, Boris, Sleep, Melvins.
jason
THE JFK JR ROYAL AIRFORCE - "ANDROIDS"
Slutfish Records
Androids seem to cause the Doppler Effect.
It's called the Doppler Effect: This occurs when you are standing still and something like, say, a
race car, bursts by while holding down its horn. The speed that the car passes causes
the horn to pitch shift [at least to your perception]. That same type of sound is also [though not
scientifically acknowledged] identified as something which you didn't quite "understand." For example, someone
tells you a joke that you don't get, and yet you giggle anyway just so you don't look like an idiot.
An example is this CD. I hear the spaciousness in the music and the whirling soundscapes but I'm just not
getting the point. Maybe there just isn't anything to get. I do know that if I spend too much time pondering
this album my brain will start to dry-heave. Now, I'm not calling "Androids" a joke -Or am I?
Wait... did this CD just tell me to look up the skirt of an elephant!?!? "Androids" is like an endurance
contest for the terminally confused. I think I'm bleeding from my eyeballs.
dr.jones.
ERIK LARSON - "FAITH, HOPE, LOVE"
Small Stone Records
Superb second album set from ATP's guitarist.
The follow up to the rightfully lauded debut from Alabama Thunderpussy’s powder-keg guitarist, Erik
Larson was always going to arouse much curiosity in lovers of splenetic, greasy, rockin’ metal. And while
I listened to this with an open mind I wasn’t quite ready for how classy these twelve tracks would
turn out to be.
Not only does this album rock like a herd of Rabid Elvis’s, it also contains some highly emotional and
decidedly effecting song writing. It has always been apparent from Erik Larson’s blood n' thunder
CV that he plays from the heart and yet again his inimitable, juggernaut guitar churns
out bone fracturing, redneck power-chords engendering an almost impenetrable wall of bellicose
riff rock that serves as a dizzying complement to his red-raw lyrics, and zesty, moonshine-burn
growls.
This really is a fiery, fistful of scum-rock as from the overdriven bluster of opening
track, "Love and Loathing" right through to the endearing Elliot Smith cover, "Say Yes", Mr. Larson has
you by the balls, and should your attention wander [unlikely!] he kicks y’all dizzy with yet another
steak-thick, flame grilled, guitar buzz-bomb...
The wildly infectious energy distilled by this electrifying album is palpable and one would
have to be three parts dead not to thrilled by the punky, locomotive bluster of "By My Hands" which charges
along with a daredevil lurch comparable to that of a V12 hotrod driven to flame-out by a blind, PCP-crazed
maniac with nothin' but death an' whiskey on his mind!
"My Inner Injustice" is not only my favourite track on the album but one of the most entrancing
examples of gutsy rock I have experienced in a long time, that simultaneously raises my
spirits and renews my faith in unpretentious rock N roll. I cannot praise this album enough, if you are
familiar with and grooved on his earlier album, "The Resounding", you will be all
over "Faith, Hope, Love" like wet on beer.
For fans of: Alabama Thunderpussy, Ichabod, Antiseen.
jason
MATER DRONIC - MUNDO ESPECTRO
Discos Necesarios
Killer spacerock with plenty of guitar freak-outs.
Mater Dronic is a Spanish heavy psych trio, and "Mundo Espectro" comes as a real suprise. Led by
guitarist Jose Carlos Sisto, the band combines the trippy atmosphere of Sundial and Bevis Frond
with the guitar pyrotechnics of King Crimson and Ozric Tentacles.
With two of the tracks clocking in at the twenty-minute mark, it's no surprise that Sisto takes off to the outer-limits with
shredding fretboard theatrics, but he tempers that with a keen ear for compelling
guitar-melodies, some delicate touches and mind-blowing, space rock songwriting. Both
bassist Eduardo Pinel Pantowsky and drummer Carter Jones Strand don't have any trouble
keeping up and provide Sisto with plenty of room for inprovisation. That being said, fans of the
aforementioned bands will find alot to like here...
walter
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