Thursday 2 July 2015

Pulgasari ~ Swedish stoner blues rockers release EP

Sweden seems to be the go to place for blues flecked hard/stoner rock and doom, giving us the mighty Graveyard, Witchcraft and Horisont among many, many others  Hoping to follow in the hallowed footsteps of those bands  Pulgasari,  a four piece from Stockholm, have just released their debut EP "Chairman of the Ouija Board"

"Chairman of the Ouija Board" is very much blues based  but shot through with elements of 90's stoner rock and 70's hard rock yet the band manage to avoid going into retro territory by not falling back on those old stale clichés that are often found in blues based rock, there is a freshness to these fuzzed up bluesy tunes brought about by not only the exemplary musicianship but also the strong song writing, arrangements and intelligent lyrics.
 Vocals are handled by Carl West (he also plays rhythm guitar) and are wonderful mix of bluesy holler and southern drawl coming across a little like Clutch's Neil Fallon on "Smoke My Meat" yet sounding like a Myles Kennedy/Axl Rose hybrid on " I Resurrect". Edgar Allen Zan (lead guitar) rips it up on every track be it with his furious riffing, ferocious solos or his well placed and chosen  licks. Keeping the engines running beneath are  Eric Axelsson (bass) and Jonathan Andersson (drums), two musicians whose solid and tight rhythmic telepathy belies the fact thy have only been playing together for roughly a year.
An online friend of mine and Bandcamp reviewer Steve Rodger will often refer to a band having a "swagger" when reviewing an album and I take this as a band have a cocky assurance in their abilities thereby oozing a confidence that then comes over in the music. If this is the case then Pulgasari SWAGGER and so does their EP.
.



No comments:

Post a Comment