DR. COLOSSUS ~ I'M A STUPID MORON WITH AN UGLY FACE AND A BIG BUTT AND MY BUTT SMELLS AND I LIKE TO KISS MY OWN BUTT ... review

You may have thought that UK heavy metal/hard rock cult heroes Budgie had the monopoly on bizarre song and album titles with their tongue in cheek titled tunes like "Nude Disintegrating Parachutist Woman" and "Napoleon Bona Parts One & Two" and albums like "Never Turn Your Back On A Friend" and " We're All Living In Cuckooland" but Australia's Dr. Colossus have put the Welsh rockers in the shade with their latest release by entitling it "I'm A Stupid Moron With An Ugly Face And A Big Butt And My Butt Smells And I Like To Kiss My Own Butt", which is quite a mouthful in anyone's book. 

Now if you are not familiar with Dr. Colossus you could be fooled into thinking that, given it's humorous title and it's Simpson themed artwork (which pastiches the Weedians of Sleep's "Dopesmoker" album), "I'm A Stupid Moron....." might be some sort of comedic venture but you would be very wrong as this is some serious hard rocking shit that'll have you jumping out of your seat throwing devil's horns at all and sundry.

Things begin rocking and a little erotic with opening song "Sex Cauldron" a tune that burst into existence on a relentless wave of gnarly crunching riffage and insistent rhythms and proceeds very much that way until its final note, the songs lyrics telling of a place of ill repute where you can escape all your problems, the singer stating categorically that "we are not talking about love here, we are talking about S.E.X." . If you are hearing shades of early Red Fang and maybe a little Mississippi Bones by now that is not surprising as Dr. Colossus have a similar humour to raunch ratio to both those bands and that raunchiness and humour is no better exemplified than on next track "Pickabar" a song that references an episode of The Simpsons where Homer is supposed to pick up his son Bart from soccer practice but forgets, the song jamming an infectious chugging groove that boasts an equally infectious chorus. "Lard Lad" follows and here we find Dr. Colossus , blending a little proto-doom with Deep Purple(ish) heavy rock, swathes of Jon Lord flavoured keyboard textures whooshing majestically over a strident groove that is made even more enjoyable by it's great lyrics and vocal. "So Long Stinktown" references Homer moving his family away from Springfield to the promised land of Cypress Creek and here we find the band slamming into a groove that bites harder than Santa's Little Helper and begins with the band gruffly harmonizing on a vocal that has the feel of something country rocker Steve Earl might have come up with (that's if Steve Earl was a Simpson's fan of course)."Get Mendoza" is up next and finds the good Dr. mixing things up with a rather impressive array of exotic motifs, neo classical flavoured shredding and dank doomic refrains, the song is also another good example of why it is not always necessary to buy into the bands Simpson themed lyrical content because if you don't always get the sometimes subtle sometimes glaringly obvious references to the shows past episodes you still have the option to rock out to the bands always excellently delivered grooves, and this song has a monster GROOVE! Despite its exotic sounding title "Hummingbird of Bengal" is a song with a southern tinted rock vibe that contains another one of those infectious choruses that will stay with you long after the songs last note has faded into the ether, and how could you not fall in love with a song that uses the lyric "i'm a vegan not a vegetarian". For their last song on "I'm A Stupid Moron ..... " Dr. Colossus go epic with a ten minute plus extravaganza called "Space Coyote" a song that blends the bands penchant for the occasional dank dark heavy refrain with a more restrained dynamic that is no less dank or dark just a touch more melancholic and reflective, the band pulling off this balance with perfect aplomb while still managing to retain that tongue in cheek blackened humour in their lyrics that has run through each and every one of the albums songs.

Do not make the mistake of reading the albums unusual title and looking at the cartoonish take on a classic stoner rock album cover and then dismissing this as some novelty record, Dr. Colossus are the real deal and with "I'm A Stupid Moron ..... " they deliver some of the hottest and raunchiest hard rock you are likely to encounter this year. 

Check it out ......  

© 2021 Frazer Jones

DREADNOUGHT IN THE POND ~ 0=1 .... review

Being totally honest we at Desert Psychlist had never heard of the subject of this review before we chanced upon this the bands latest, and first, full length studio release but we are damn sure we will never forget them now! The band in question go by the name Dreadnought In The Pond, Remco Tzukerman (guitar/vocals); Dmytro Pishko (bass/vocals) and Roma Kuz (drums), and hail from Ternopil, Ukraine and to describe what they bring to the table musically is probably one of the hardest tasks Desert Psychlist has ever undertaken. There are no convenient little genre labelled boxes to place Dreadnought In The Pond's music into and even if there were there are aspects of the bands sound that would still remain laying outside of that box in an unclassifiable heap. The band do try to help us out by describing themselves as a "prog band" but the music they play on their new opus "0=1" is unlike that played by any prog band we have heard before or may even  hear again.

 The best way to describe DITP's sound is to say it is a constructed noise, a complex noise, a sometimes unsettling noise, an often confused noise but for all that .. a beautiful noise, the nearest comparisons anyone could probably make to the bands sound would be that of The Mars Volta or possibly Tool but even then your arrows of comparison would be falling wide of their mark. DITP squeeze into their dissonant ditties elements of everything from punk to krautrock, their songs are sometimes loud and jarring, sometimes smooth and free-flowing, their vocals range from angsty screams through to clipped gothic croons and their grooves incorporate an astounding array of weird and wonderful instrumental tricks and effects, all of these elements combining together to create something that is totally unique and exciting if sometimes a little eclectic. What about the songs we hear you ask, well as we said in our opening piece DITP's sound is not something that lends itself to easy description and that goes for their songs too so we will just pick out what for us are a few highlights to be found on "0=1" like the wonderfully mind-blowing "Like Butterflies" with its grungy industrial groove and recurring guitar motifs and the epic centerpiece "When You Pass Away" with its ever shifting dynamics and dissonant lead work, but in all honesty there is not one song on "0=1" that you will wish to skip or scan over, each is a masterpiece in its own right even though each teeters precariously on the edge of falling into a glorious chaos.

Dreadnought In The Pond are not going to be everybody's cup of tea, there will be many out there for whom the bands schizophrenic musical attack will be a step too far out of their comfort zones, but for those who do get what this band are trying to achieve with their music then "0=1" will be like a gift from the Gods. 

Check it out .... 

© 2021 Frazer Jones

HIPPIE DEATH CULT ~ CIRCLE OF DAYS ..... review

Portland, Oregon's Hippie Death Cult first burst onto the scene with a trio of tantalizing singles drip fed to the public via their Bandcamp page, they then followed this up with their debut full length album "111" which quickly become one of the "must own" underground albums for many of the scenes devotees, it also garnered its fair share of praise from many of the scenes movers and shakers featuring not only at #6 on Desert Psychlist's "Best of 2019" end of year list but also ranking high on the lists of many others. This year the band return with their second album "Circle of Days" (Heavy Psych Sounds Records) and on just one listen we predict this will not only match the success of "111" it will eclipse that success.

"Circle of Days" opens in grand style with "Red Meat Tricks" a quasi-doomic opus with a grungy undercurrent that is superbly anchored to earth by Laura Phillips deep rumbling bass and Ryan Moore's busy dexterous drumming and then made to fly by guitarist Eddie Brnabic's crunching chords and swirling feel drenched solos. Now those familiar with the band will already know that HDC have in their possession a singer of rare depth, power and quality but those coming to the band anew will be blown away when they first witness the vocals of Ben Jackson, his voice, an instrument in it's own right, is able to go from a clipped gothic croon to a graveled rock god howl and everything in between with seamless ease., he also plays a mean keyboard. "Hornet Party" follows, the songs up and down dynamic sees ringing arpeggios and fractured chord voicings trading places with furious neo-classical shredding against a rhythmic backdrop that shifts up and down the gears between laid back and mid-tempo and  fiery and thrash-like with Jackson following suit with a suitably schizophrenic vocal. Those that invested in HDC's first release will already have noticed a more mature sound on this their latest outing and that maturity really makes its presence felt on next song "Walk Within" an achingly beautiful ballad//torch song that highlights the more subtle and melancholic side of Brnabic's guitar playing and also throws a well deserved spotlight on not only the versatility of Jackson's vocals but also his skills on the keyboards, Phillips minimalistic bass lines and sublime dual vocal combined with Moore's shimmering percussion adding that extra touch of class to the occasion. Title track "Circle of Days" is a sublime mid-tempo number that mixes the grunginess of the albums opener with a little stoner/hard rock and heavy psych over which wonderful wafting harmonies and melodic lead vocals are executed to perfection, the band keeping the groove tight but with just the right levels of looseness so as not sound over-compacted or overly compressed. For the albums last song "Eye In The Sky" HDC put all their eggs in one basket, cleverly combing the musical elements of hard rock blues and psych that have informed sections of all the albums previous songs and combining them together in one mind-blowing finale, scintillating stuff!

With their debut album "111" Hippie Death Cult wanted to make a statement of intent, to announce their arrival with grooves that would grab the listener by the throat and say "this is who we are ,this is what we do" and there was an exuberant rawness about the songs on "111" that did just that. On "Circle of Days" Hippie Death Cult retain that exuberance but this time around they combine it with a more mature approach to the music, this is not an album that needs to grab your attention with one full on attack after another as they had already achieved that with "111", with "Circle of Days" the band want to show you what else they've have in the locker, and that locker is full to brimming over with deliciousness.

Check it out ..... 

© 2021 Frazer Jones

MIST TOWER ~ OBSESSION .... review

 

Ukraine's Mist Tower, Artyom Matiienko (vocals); Alexandr Hodosevych (guitar); Andrew "djentle.man" (guitar); Yaroslav Starovich (drums) and Simon Buzzkeeper (bass) describe themselves as a band who gathered together to "smoke and play music", well we are not close enough to the band to comment on their smoking claim (although we suspect its true) but given that Desert Psychlist has just given the bands debut EP "Obsession" a very satisfying and enjoyable spin we can verify that the playing music part of that statement definitely holds water.

"4th of July" kicks things off with big swirling riffs interspersed with cleverly placed spaced out guitar textures and is decorated with a sneering vocal that for split second had Desert Psychlist wondering if Brit-rock stalwarts Oasis' front man Liam Gallagher had changed his name and moved to the Ukraine, such is the similarity in tone. There is nothing Oasis like about the music behind that voice though as Mist Tower are probably closer on this song to an early Elder than they are the Manchester Brit-rockers albeit with a little more doomic spatial awareness. "Pandemic" follows and poses a bit of a question as here we find Mist Tower ramping up the doom quotient as well as the heavy psych but twinning those elements with a vocal totally different in tone and execution to the albums other tracks which beggars the question was this song recorded separately from the rest of the album and added as an after thought or had the singer just not smoked enough prior to laying down his vocals, either way its a damn good song. Those slightly  sneered vocal tones return for "Devil's Knife" and are combined with a groove that is a little less intense than what has gone before, still heavy but just not as dark while "Vibrations" finds the band bringing a little lysergic haziness into play and building up the atmospherics, the two different and heavily effected guitar tones playing off against each other just before the close of this song is mind-blowing. The EP closes with "Kolodyaz" a scintillating instrumental that builds its part up slowly layer by glorious layer until reaching a peak of psychedelic doomic splendor and then slowly making its way down again.

More a mini album than an EP "Obsession" is a collection of five songs that blends elements of heavy psych and stoner metal together with doom but does so without getting overly dark or dense, the band achieving this by allowing plenty of space within the compositions for them to breathe, still keeping things heavy but not over compacting everything so it all becomes a relentless dirge.

Check it out .....

© 2021 Frazer Jones

A BETTER TOMORROW ~ SPIRITUAL CROSSING ...... review

Desert Psychlist likes grooves that come at you from unexpected angles and the album up for review today certainly delivers on that level. "Spiritual Crossing" by French quartet A Better Tomorrow is an album that will probably divide opinion, there will be those that can't get their heads around its soulful undercurrents, there will be others that will be confused by its frequent forays into jazz and there will be some who will find it leaning a little too close for comfort to a mainstream sound. We at Desert Psychlist understand (to some extent) all those concerns but there is also plenty of metal to be found here, crunching riffs and thundering rhythms that sit comfortably beside those other musical dynamics in perfect, if unexpected, harmony and if you suspend your misgivings for a while you might just find (like us) these grooves starting to hit your sweet spot.

"A Better Tomorrow", the song that gives the band their name, opens proceedings with guest musician Lionel Martin blowing a sweet unaccompanied saxophone solo that is slowly joined by dark droning feedback before suddenly exploding into a strident metal groove drenched in fuzz and distortion and pushed by insistent percussion. Sound good so far? well it gets even better when Vanessa Ghisolfi joins the fray with a vocal that is powerful without being overly ballsy and sweet without being saccharine, her vocals a perfectly balanced display of vocal dexterity. Things get downright delicious with next track "Spread" its ascending/descending dynamic constantly shifts between a full on metal assault and a laid back jazzy soulful stroll in the clouds and is routinely interrupted by the sort of instrumental prowess usually only the reserve of  fleet fingered proggers or jazz-rock fusioneers and that's all without mentioning the superbly pitched vocals that waft  serenely overhead. Lovers of jazz-rock will fall head over heels in love with next track "Blow By Blow" a song that begins with a Thomas Jullien liquid bass motif and finishes with guitarist Benjamin Lousky doing his best Grant Green (respected 60's jazz guitarist) impersonation the band filling the spaces in-between these two performances with a mix of swaggering hard rock and modal jazz that finds drummer Grégory Ogier showing us that not only can he pound the living daylights out of his kit he also has that swing thing going on too, the song also once again highlights Ghisolfi's vocal range, the singer roaring like a Viking shield maiden one minute scatting like a modern day Flora Purim ( legendary Brazilian jazz chanteuse) the next. "Black Cats" follows and begins with a riff that has a Led Zeppelin/Budgie vibe but then settles down into a chugging hard rock/metal groove with Ghisolfi telling us her tale of dark felines in powerful emotional tones thick with soulful gravitas. Proceedings are brought to a close with "Ghosts of Remembrance" a proggish torch song that gives free reign for each member to show the best of themselves and end what has been a breathtaking musical journey on a massive high.

Those of you out there who might be a little scared by the references to jazz and jazz legends we have included in this review don't be, there is enough metal and hard rock here to fill a small canyon and despite the A Better Tomorrow's constant forays into soul and jazz territories that heavier side of the bands sound is very, very pleasingly HEAVY! For those that do not need to be convinced to listen to something with jazz and soul overtones and whose minds are already open to other forms of music then "Spiritual Crossing" will be manna from heaven, this is an album that fuses soul and jazz together with metal without getting overcomplicated or convoluted and may, if you let it, open a gateway to whole new world of music for you. 

Check it out .... 

© 2021 Frazer Jones

MOON COVEN ~ SLUMBER WOOD ..... review

 

If you like your doom stonerized and with a ritualistic spiritual vibe then you can't go far wrong by tapping into the grooves brought to sacrificial altar by Malmo based Swedish doomsters Moon Coven. The band will be no strangers to those of you out there with your fingers on the pulse of the underground scene as the band have impressed us before, first with their three song EP, "Amanita Kingdom" and then again with their full length self-titled debut "Moon Coven". Its been a while since "Moon Coven" was released but good things are worth waiting for and the bands new release "Slumber Wood" (Ripple Music) is definitely something you would class as a "good thing"

Opening track "Further" harks back to an earlier period in Moon Coven's development in that it employs those classic stoner doom dynamics of slow low and heavy bass and guitar refrains bolstered by pummeling, pounding percussion and monotonic, but nevertheless melodic, vocals that have become Moon Coven's trademark.  It is second song "Ceremony" that first starts to show us a glimpses of why those six years of hard work have not been wasted. The song does not deviate too far from the bands usual stoner doom blueprint, those riffs are still a dominant force and those drums still pound and pummel, but there is a more melodic and harmonious feel to everything going on here, a feel that is further enhanced by the totally unexpected blues drenched guitar solo that erupts out of the heaviness at around the songs half way mark. "Potbelly Hill" is up next and again it is a song driven by big resounding riffs but again Moon Coven don't let things become a relentless dirge the band cleverly injecting little snippets of post rock texturing and psych like colorings into the proceedings to lighten things up. "Eye of the Night" is probably the nearest Moon Coven will ever get to writing an all out hard rock song while "A Tower of Silence" shows the bands more experimental side. "Bahgsu Nag" follows and is somewhat of a departure for the band in that it has a more indie/alternative feel, it is also a song that forces Desert Psychlist into confessing that there have been times, up to and including this song, where we have been hearing shades of "Faith" and "Seventeen Seconds" era The Cure in both the albums vocal tones and  musical execution, ok the delivery is a lot more intense and heavier but we still hear it all the same. Confession over we move on to next track "Seagull" a song that finds Moon Coven taking the bare bones of stoner doom and hanging on those bones bright musical trinkets that glisten and sparkle amidst the gloom. Things are then brought to close with "My Melting Mind" a song that once again harks back to Moon Coven's past endeavors of big doomic riffs and big thunderous rhythms, however the bands new found musicality is never far away and has now become part of the bands DNA and so its not long before a series of ringing arpeggios and circular guitar motifs make their presence felt to bring a touch of much called for respite to the songs low heavy and relentless sonic attack.

The band tell us that "Slumber Wood" is an album that took six years in the making, now before you start thinking the band were suffering from some sort of TOOL or Axl Rose syndrome let us remember that Moon Coven are an underground band with none of the resources of those other two and in order to survive to play their music they have to have day jobs and in turn have lives that need living. However those six years of writing, rehearsing and playing live has had its compensations, the band sound tighter than ever on "Slumber Wood" and the relentless riffage that informed their previous releases has been enhanced by a musicality that can only have come from endless hours of practice and rehearsal .

Check it out...

© 2021 Frazer Jones

SANTA PLANTA ~ SANTA PLANTA ...... review

Light one up and relax yourselves into the arms Spanish trio Santa Planta and allow them to carry you on clouds of sweet smelling smoke through a world where riffs are king and rhythms rumble with thunderous intent. Santa Planta, Lorena "Lowla Blaze" Zamora (drums/additional vocals); Alex "Sticky fingers" Reduello (bass/additional vocals) and Dani "Goat Whisperer" Roldán-Cuartero (guitar/vocals), hail from Madrid, Spain and jam a groove that blends eclectic stoner doom with elements of heavy psych and post-rock while at the same time utilizing samples and soundbytes to give their sound an almost Floydian flavour, and if you like the sound of that then you'll just adore their self-titled debut EP "Santa Planta" (Loneravn Records)

Fans of stoner doom will melt into puddles of riff worshiping ecstasy as the first strains of opening track "Overture (to your lungs)" wends its way out of the speakers and into their ears, dark dank and driven by pummeling percussion and low rumbling bass this ode to the "leaf" is manna from heaven for those devotees of grooves low slow and heavy especially when those grooves are decorated with the sort of grainy guitar tones and monotonic vocals that have become almost de rigueur for music of this nature. The stoners don't get it all their own way though as at the halfway mark the band suddenly decide that a little swagger is called for and erupt into a galloping mid-section that sits just a few BPM's below thrash before reverting back to type to take things to the close. "Witches" sees Santa Planta bringing a little of their Floydian flavoured heavy psych into play with swirling lead guitar howling and screeching over a backdrop of thick droning bass guitar and pounding percussion which is then further enhanced by vocal contributions from each band member. Final track "Judas Goat" is a slow building riff monster spliced with sampled soundbytes of terrified sheep bleating and someone explaining the workings of an abattoir set against a backdrop of dark heavy psych, Zamora and Reduello laying down a slow relentless groove for Roldán-Cuartero to decorate with scintillating lead work, the track suddenly taking off on a more upward and speedier trajectory as it reaches its finale.

Stoner Doom as a genre can sometimes be somewhat one-dimensional but Santa Planta have managed to avoid that particular pitfall by adding a few interesting curveballs and quirks to their sound. As a new(ish) band they are not quite the finished article yet but this EP shows a band full of promise and one to keep our eyes and ears on in the future.
Check 'em out .....

© 2021 Frazer Jones

BLEND OF STONES ~ CABINET OF CURIOSITIES ....... review

 

There is nothing that floats Desert Psychlist's boat more than some raucous hard rock spliced with a decent amount of stoner fuzz and distortion which is probably why French quintet Blend of Stones, Mat (drums); Nico and Dav (guitars); Lilian (bass) and Dadou (vocals), debut EP  "Cabinet of Curiosities" has made such an impression on us and hopefully will have the same effect others too.

If you are a fan of Clutch or Mississippi Bones then there is a lot about Blend of Stones that will appeal here, there is a similar feel to the grooves the band deliver on "Cabinet of Curiosities" that carries a flavor of both those bands yet does so without sounding like a copy or a pastiche. Ok vocalist Dadou does not possess the tongue in cheek drawl of Mississippi Bones Jared Collins or the fire and brimstone delivery of  Clutch's Neil Fallon but his gruff, powerful tones nevertheless have a similar level of grittiness and fury that is perfectly suited to the slightly southern tinted stoner rock that surrounds them. Things kick of gnarly and raucous with "Headbreaker" an all out assault on the senses driven by growling bass and furious drumming, courtesy of Lilian and Mat, and given all the necessary crunch and crackle thanks to the guitars of Nico and Dav, Dadou waxing lyrical over the top in a voice unshackled by restraint, full on strong and loud. With hardly anytime allowed for the listener to catch his/her breath the band slam into "Crazy" a testosterone fueled romp that doesn't let up for even a second and finds Dadou trading vocal licks with the rest of the band in a sort of call and response scenario, if this song doesn't have you jumping out of your seat and dancing around your living room/bedroom like a possessed lunatic then there is something seriously wrong with you. "Candle" eases off the accelerator but only slightly, it's bluesy undercurrent is enhanced with clever little guitar  motifs and licks and finds Dadou tailoring his vocals to include a little soulful melancholy. The superbly titled "Prophet Asshole" sees Blend of Stones getting a little adventurous and adding touches of doomic texturing to their bluesy hard/stoner rock attack, nothing too low and slow but enough to add an air of dankness to proceedings.

Huge sounding grooves with the perfect blend of bluesy hard rock swagger and fuzzed out stoner rock bluster is what Blend of Stones deliver with "Cabinet of Curiosities", a full on musical attack that does not try to pretend that it is anything other than good hard rocking music played with passion and honesty.

Check it out .... 

© 2021 Frazer Jones

JUKE COVE ~ REMEDY ..... review

For a brief period Desert Psychlist asks you to put aside all your notions of genre and classification and lend an ear to something that doesn't quite fit into any of the usual musical categories, that something is an album called "Remedy"(Interstellar Smoke Records) by a German trio going by the name of Juke Cove. "Remedy" is an album that leaves no room for non committed fence sitting this is an album you will either love with a passion or vehemently hate, we at Desert Psychlist fall into the first camp.

We at Desert Psychlist find the term "alternative" a strange term to apply to music especially as music classified with that term never states exactly what it is supposed to be an "alternative" to, however the term in Juke Cove's case is quite an apt one as what the band present the listener with on "Remedy" is an alternative to the mundane, the run of the mill and the generic. From the opening bars of first track "Arise" to the closing notes of last track "Ignite" anything and everything is thrown into the mix, rules of how a piece of music should be put together or progress are not just broken they are rendered to splinters, crunching guitar riffs vie with clarinet solos', spoken narrative trades places with punkish harmonies and heavy metallic swagger climbs into bed with eastern exotica. Musically this band are on fire Mateusz Pietrzela's  guitar work is a heady mixture of raucous fuzz drenched powerchords and furious fiery shredding, Maxim Balobin's drumming is a stunning blend of power and restraint and Dima Ogorodnov's bass work is just devastatingly deep and deliciously delightful, together they create a sound that is as wild and untamed as it is arranged and structured.

Juke Cove's music on "Remedy" is one free of expectations it is a music that goes where it wants to go when it wants to go there, as we said in our opening piece you will either love what this band do or you won't, what we can guarantee however is  that once you've heard them you'll never forget them.

Check it out ....

© 2021 Frazer Jones

SHOGUN ~ TETRA ...... review

We don't know if it has something to do with the ancient laws of Bushido but this is the second time Wisconsin quartet Shogun has taken everyone by surprise by releasing an album without anyone having any knowledge that they were about to do so, not that we are complaining mind. because the bands latest outing "Tetra" is an ass kicking little gem.

Shogun have always described what they do as "riffs upon riffs, upon riffs, upon more riffs" but we at Desert Psychlist feel the band are doing themselves a disservice with such a description, there is more to what Shogun bring to the table than just the an endless array of guitar refrains, these guys have a groove and they are not afraid to use it. That groove presents itself  right from the word go with first track "Gravitas" a solid mid-tempo rocker decorated in cool clean melodic vocals sung over a desert rock groove that probably leans more towards hard rock than it does metal. Following track "Buddah's Palm/Aviary" is a song in two parts, the first part is heralded in by drummer Alvin Vega banging out a solid four to the floor drum tattoo which is then joined by bassist Max Muenchow and guitarist Sam Wallman in a stuttering metallic groove that is further enhanced by Wallman's clever solo insertions and ear catching licks and taken to another level by Joe Widen's distinctive vocals while the songs second part finds the band dabbling with a more lysergic sound, that includes ringing arpeggios shimmering percussion and fractured chord voicings. "Disintergrate" opens with Vega and Muenchow locking into an old school hard rock groove with Wallman adding the fire with some sterling lead work, it is almost a whole two minutes before Widen's vocals join the fray but it's worth the wait, his clean, powerful voice bringing bright melody where other singers might have brought dark dissonant harshness. Up next is "Delta" which starts off with a sample of Blind Willie Johnson performing "Nobody's Fault But Mine" but then segues into a low slow doomic riff monster driven by low booming bass and thundering percussion that showcases Widen's vocal prowess as a blues singer, that however is not the end of the story as the song then shifts again this time into a laid back psychedelic groove that allows Wallman to step into the spotlight and pin our ears back with an achingly beautiful and emotive guitar solo. "Gone Forever" finds Shogun throwing their hat into the folk/Americana arena with a stunning laid back ballad that gives Wallman the opportunity to show us that what he can do with an electric guitar he is more than capable of doing with an acoustic also. We already know that these guys can do stoner and hard rock standing on their heads but can they also turn their hands to a bit of old school "classic" rock, well "Axiom" says they can and as if to further prove it they do it again on another two part piece "Vertex/ Universal Pain Center", this time finishing it off  with a weird but nevertheless wonderful experiment in sound. Shogun bring things to a close with "Maximum Play " a song that pulls everything the band has shown us up to now together in one song.

Maybe Shogun should re-think their "riffs upon riffs..." slogan, given the range of music to be found on "Tetra", how does "riffs upon ringing arpeggios, upon acoustic noodling, upon more riffs" grab you.

Check it out ..... 

© 2021 Frazer Jones

GODHEAD LIZARD ~ V838 ..... review

Attempting to reach unattainable goals knowing that we are bound to fail is something we as humans have hardwired into our DNA, but still we try. A strange statement to begin a review with you might think but climbing ladders only to reach the bottom rung again is the theme chosen by Quebec quartet Godhead Lizard to tie together the bands latest collection of songs for their second full length album "V838", and believe us when we say it's a climb worth undertaking.

"Climbing all this way up just to get this? If the sky is a king, chaos is my queen" sings vocalist Vince on opening track "Vertigo", his powerful vocal carrying a throaty soulful weariness totally suited to both the songs lyrical content and the music surrounding that content, those surrounding grooves being a mixture of Sabbathian  proto-doom and bluesy hard rock awash with grainy fuzz and thrumming distortion that is driven hard by a battery of thundering percussion. As an opening track "Vertigo" is pretty impressive stuff but we've only just scratched the surface and what's to come is as equally impressive if not more so.  Next track "Cracks & Mirror" kicks off with one of those recurring guitar motifs so beloved of  bands like Sasquatch and Black Sabbath but then plummets into a juddering jarring stoner doom(ish) groove anchored by bassist Phil's growling bass and drummer Jo's pounding skins and cymbals over which guitarist Nic chops out fuzz soaked power chords and distortion saturated bluesy solos, Vince placing the cherry firmly on the musical cake with a powerful and emotive vocal. "Chiskar" follows and initially jams a hazy lysergic blues groove but then erupts into all out fuzzed out heaviness enhanced by some blistering guitar work from Nic and a superbly pitched vocal from Vince. "W?AT O.D." borrows a "Master of Reality" era type Sabbath riff and marries it with a vocal that carries a few characteristics usually associated with Clutch's Neil Fallon while "Momocerotis" finds  Godhead Lizard dipping their toes into the waters of instrumental heavy psych. Its back to business as usual with "Bending Waters", Vince spouting cryptic lyrics about monkeys, knives and bookshelves against an undulating heavy blues tinted groove that is constantly erupting, quelling then erupting again. It's been a hell of a ride so far but all good things must come to an end eventually and so with sad hearts we finally arrive at final track "Gates of Kurnugi" a throat grabbing blend of lysergic ambience and full on pure rock fury that in its quieter moments carries a reflective soulfulness but in its louder, heavier moments hits with the force of a runaway train, if there was a world record for how much fuzz and distortion you could possibly cram into one song then "Gates of Kurnigi" would be in with a shout for that title, your speakers/headphones will be screaming for mercy.

Intelligent cryptic lyrics delivered by a vocalist of rare quality over grooves of powerful loud hard rock are what Godhead Lizard deliver with their latest album and although the band warn us, via the albums theme, that all our chasing of dreams will eventually see us getting closer to the bottom than nearer to the top, the band seem to have climbed somewhat nearer to their peak with "V838".

Check it out ..... 

© 2021 Frazer Jones