PRAYER FOR THE MASSESS ~ ...AND RETURNS ...... review

Its not that often we review albums by bands/artists that have called it a day or disbanded but we have to make an exception in this case as this is an album that falls into the blow your mind to smithereens category. The band/artist in question (we cannot be certain if they are actually a band or a one man project) goes by the name of Prayer for the Massess and the only solid information we can give you is that the band/artist hails from Greece. Things are made even more mysterious by a cryptic message on the band/artists Bandcamp page which says "you can't contact Prayer for the Massess, you can't trust Prayer for the Massess" and a liner note in bold print explaining that the latest album, "...and returns", was recorded "A WHILE AGO BUT WAS NEVER RELEASED!!!" and if that wasn't confusing enough beneath this is a message in morse code signed off with the name SATVRNI. It seems pretty obvious that this is a band/artist who wishes to remain anonymous and who doesn't seem overly fussed about promotion, so why, you may ask, are we bothering to promote it, the answer to that is simple... because "...and  returns" is one of the best drugged up sounding, hazy assed slices of acid doom, voodoo blues you are likely to hear this year, or maybe ANY year!

The title of opening number "Wizard of Love" evokes images of a smiling white bearded mage dressed in flowery garb, his pockets overflowing with potions and charms, but you should never judge a song by its title. What we actually have here is a doomy slow acid blues tome played at almost funereal pace that is drenched in fuzz, and distortion and boasts a vocal that you could easily believe was delivered by a member of the living dead with its throat still partially filled with the graveyard earth it was buried in.
Next song "Addicted to Madness" is driven by a slightly more industrial backbeat but is nevertheless just as cloying and dank as its predecessor, the vocalist proclaiming himself "the lord of lost, the lord of void, the king of worms, the fall of man," in monotonic tones over screaming lead guitar, economic but effective bottom end and that aforementioned industrial drumming. Following tracks "Prince of Darkness" and "Crucified" stick fairly rigidly to the format of the albums first two numbers, sedately paced and heavy on atmosphere but then along comes the upbeat instrumental "What Lurks Underneath" to show us that what actually lurks underneath is an artist/band with the chops to be the next Earthless or Karma to Burn if they ever decided to jettison the gloom and despair for something a touch more upbeat and hopeful. A touch of the previous tracks musical positivity does manage to manifest itself on following tracks "Claws of Pleasure" and "My Damnation", although any light allowed in is heavily filtered through layers of lyrical despair and despondency. Next up comes the laid back and semi-acoustic "Holy Land", the vocalist voicing his dreams of a land where "all flowers are empty" and "the crosses have shattered", the song serving as gentle respite for the oncoming storm that is "Hollow's Rise" a schizophrenic instrumental that is part doomic riff fest and part heavy psych mindfuck. Final track "Children of the Sacred" finds Prayer for the Massess pushing for the finish line in full doom mode, not quite abandoning the bluesy elements that have served them so well, up to this point, but certainly dumbing them down in favour of a more dark and dank sonic attack.

Prayer for the Massess are a band/artist whose identity is undetermined, are they a band or the brainchild of one man, and is "...and returns" really Prayer for the Massess last ever album, given that they have already told us not to trust them..., who knows. What is determined however is that either together or as a single unit Prayer for the Massess make a fantastic noise, a noise that needs to be heard regardless of who or what they may be.

Check 'em out ...  

  

 © 2023 Frazer Jones

LORD MOUNTAIN ~ THE OATH .....review

What is "traditional doom" and how does it differ from the "epic doom" and "proto-doom" that it is often mentioned in the same breath with, well the truth is we don't really know. We at Desert Psychlist tend to use the hard and fast rule of dubbing anything with a sound similar in flavour to early Black Sabbath as "proto-doom" and anything with the grandiose richness of say Candlemass or Solitude Aeturnus as "epic doom" and then classing anything that falls in-between, and has an essence of both, as "traditional doom". Of course we understand that this is lazy journalism and that we are pandering to peoples need to compartmentalize their music but then try sitting down to write a review of an album and NOT do something similar. it's damn hard. Why are we mentioning this you may ask, well today we are reviewing "The Oath" (King Volume Records/ Kozmik Artifactz) the new album from Californian doom combo Lord Mountain an album that falls firmly into that "traditional" box we have lazily created for it but in truth is so much more, an album our old Doom Charts pal Bucky Brown probably sums up best with his Bandcamp blurb for "The Oath" where he calls the album "too metal for doom but too doom for metal".

"The Oath" is an album packed heavy with all cliches you could hope to hear on a release with its feet in the camps of both heavy metal and doom, fantasy inspired lyrical content , reverberating guitar riffs, neo-classical flavoured solos, tight, but flexible, rhythms and powerful clean theatrical vocals, Now given this information you might expect the word "generic" to pop up somewhere in this review but we can assure you that it will not and the reason it will not is because Lord Mountain bring a vigour and freshness to traditional flavoured doom the genre has been long lacking. You can go through "The Oath" track by glorious track and easily find nods to all the greats of doom, such as Black Sabbath, Pagan Altar, Trouble and Candlemass, but you can also find in its makeup essences of dooms new breed of "traditionalists" like Green Lung, Sleepwulf and Parish, and it is this blending of old school grandiosity and new school occultist swagger that makes "The Oath" such a breath of fresh air. Songs like "Well of Fates", "The Last Crossing", "Serpent Temple" and title track "The Oath" are not just a celebration of dooms past but also examples of how doom in its purest form is still as relevant today as it was before the genre became swamped in waves of harshness and brutality. "The Oath" recalls a simpler time when "sludge" was just a descriptive term for industrial waste and "blackened" referred to a cooking process using spices, however the grooves Jesse Swanson (guitars and vocals), Sean Serrano (guitars), Andy Chism (bass) and Pat Moore (drums) present to us with their new album should not be considered "retro" as they carry too much originality, "vintage" (something that represents the best of its kind) would be a far, far better description.

"The Oath" is an album that will appeal to those that cut their teeth on bands like Witchfinder General, Pagan Altar and St. Vitus as well as those working their way back from newer bands like Spellbook, Inner Altar and Dawnrider. Lord Mountain play doom the way doom used to be played, they are not trying to re-invent the wheel with "The Oath" they are just attempting to put a new tyre on it.

Check it out .... 

© 2023 Frazer Jones

GODSGROUND ~ A BEWILDERED MIND ..... review

Steffan Jugl (guitar), Ben Knabe (vocals), Sergio Arceri (drums) and Gregor Zirngibl (bass) are Godsground a collective of musicians from Munich, Germany who came together in 2014. Some of you may have crossed paths with the band previously thanks to their albums "The Golden Age" and "The Great Delusion" or maybe chanced upon their debut EP "Mosquitos", if you did then you will know that the band have a penchant for blending grunge/alt-rock dynamics together with elements of stoner fuzz and hard rock crunch to create a sound flecked with familiarity yet totally unique to themselves., if you didn't then the bands new album "A Bewildered Mind" is a good point to work back from.

A crunching guitar motif kicks off first song "Drink Some More" and is quickly joined by the drums and bass in a dirge like groove over which a mellow melodic vocal holds sway, although not doom by any stretch of the imagination there is nonetheless a doomy depressive air to this song, that said it is still a great song, just not one you would expect to open an album with. "A Game of Light" lifts the mood by jamming a chugging grunge groove interspersed with catchy hooks, both musical and vocal, that showcase the bands more playful side. Next track "Balance" finds the band hitting into an upbeat circular groove that channels both Alice In Chains and Soundgarden in its sonic attack with its vocals very much favouring the former while for "Into the Butter" Godsground employ that old grunge staple of loud/quiet/loud dynamics only with Godsground's quiet tending to wander into experimental territories while their loud has a heavy stoner vibe. "Flood" starts life low key and humble then suddenly comes at you in waves of gnarly riffage and thundering rhythms with the songs vocals taking on a similar dynamic. Godsground really stretch out for next song "Non Reflecting Mirror", the band kicking the song off with gnarly distortion heavy riffs punctuated by scorching shredded guitar before dropping down into a mellow, almost jazz like psych groove over which the vocal adopts a lounge lizard type croon that gets more impassioned and grittier as the song gets more intense and heavy. Last song "Letter Full of Wine" mixes its stoner with its alt-rock and then layers some bluesy guitar soloing over the top, not content to leave it at that they then wind things up by taking off on a heavy psych/doom jam, its all a bit schizophrenic but boy does it work.

Godsground's "A Bewildered Mind" is a prime example of how good grunge/alt-rock can still be if allowed to evolve at its own pace and be free to absorb elements from other musical sources, its an album that draws obvious influences from the past but at the same time is not beholden to those influences, as Kurt Cobain once said "Wanting to be someone else is a waste of who you are"

Check 'em out ..... 

© 2023 Frazer Jones

DRAKEN ~ BOOK OF BLACK .... review

If you stumble across Norwegian trio Draken's latest album "Book of Black"(Majestic Mountain Records) for the first time and are unfamiliar with the bands previous work you may, on the strength of its artwork, be expecting something that resides in the black metal or death-doom ballpark and to be fair if you did make that assumption then you would be wrong but at the same time - not completely wrong. There are elements of both to be found nestling in this bands sonic attack, but then there is also so much else. Punk(ish) aggression, thrash like tempo's, prog like complexities and even fusionistic modal jazziness all make their presence felt here among the heavy metal/ hard rock riffs and rhythms that are at the beating heart of Draken's music and all play there part in making "Book of Black" an intriguing prospect for any metal loving aficionado blessed with a discerning ear.

Hallvard Gaardløs (bass/lead vocals); Even Helte Hermansen (guitar/background vocals) and Andre Drage Haraldsen (drums) are the orchestrators of this diverse and at times quite brutal collection of metallic tomes and to say that they are at the height of their collective powers throughout, would be an understatement as the opening title track will testify to. "Book of Black" is a song that blends together a myriad of vocal stylings over a groove that is in constant flux, the song swelling, dissipating and changing direction as if it were a living entity attempting to break free from its form and structure, the only thing holding it in check being the musicians who gave it its existence, it's breath-taking! Gaardløs stated in a recent interview that for the new album Draken "wanted to make a more in-your-face hard rock/metal record, inspired by bands like Motörhead and Metallica", a statement that goes a long way to explaining the thinking behind next song "Bastards", a furious thrash-like romp that doffs its cap to both those bands Gaardløs mentions but in particular the former. "We Deserve to Suffer" follows next and its initial phase could probably be considered metal of an "old school" flavour but as the word "initial" might suggest its not long before things goes off-piste and onto paths less well travelled, the most interesting of which is a jazz fusion like episode that needs to be heard to be believed as words just can't capture the magnitude of its delivery. Much the same way as its predecessor did "House of Horrors" also starts off fairly straightforward before taking a sharp left turn, on this occasion though the transition is into progressive rock territories rather than jazz, albeit touching base with a little blues and doom along the way, the track also features some extremely tasteful keyboard from guest musician Vegard Lien Bjerkan whose contribution takes things to whole other level. Next song "Symbiote" features another guest in the shape of vocalist Anita Kaasbøll (Bladed/ Trondheim Voices), and is a song that has a musical groove and a vocal attack not too dissimilar to that of  USA stoner metal/Americana/prog pioneers Huntsmen (in their heavier moments) only with Draken putting a little more emphasis on the stoner side of things. The following "Devotees of the Faith" is song that totally lives up to Draken's claim of wanting to sound "more in your face" its caustic guitar tones thundering rhythms and confrontational vocal stylings  combine to create a musical attack that is almost hardcore in its execution while "Relentless Sinners" jams a groove a little closer to hard rock but is no less caustic or abrasive. Most bands and artists like to finish on a high and Draken are no exception and so they present us with "Bloodguilt" a song that stumbles back and forth between genres like a drunkard trying to walk a straight white line, gothic croons and feral roars decorating a groove that routinely crosses in and out of musical territories that are lightyears away from the songs point of origin. 

Draken are a band with a collective inability to be able to take a musical path and stick rigidly to that path, they are a band whose need to incorporate everything they have ever heard or experienced into a piece of music overrides everything. The only thing Draken demand of their music is that it remains heavy regardless of the direction it might take, of course this approach carries an air of risk, chaos is always a possibility, but these guys keep a tight hold on the reins and rather then let the music completely dictate its own path they steer it where they need it to go and with "Book of Black" they have steered their music to whole new level of  excellence.

Check it out .... 

 

© 2023 Frazer Jones

MUFFDIVER ~ CTRL+P .... review

 

If there is one sub-genre of music that will guarantee that we at Desert Psychlist will kick back our chairs an indulge in some fist pumping idiot dancing then its heavy rock with a southern swagger in its gait. Usually these type of grooves hail from the southern states of the USA but in this case they originate from a quite different south, the south of France, Toulouse to be precise. The band playing these grooves go by the very un-woke name of MuffDiver and consist of Manu (guitar); Marc (guitar); Etienne (bass); Tommy (drums) and Fanch (vocals /guitar), a band that jam a groove that begs borrows and steals from stoner rock, alt-rock/metal and the blues but at its heart is as southern as deep fried chicken and black eyed peas. The French five piece combo have just released their second EP "CTRL+P" and its finger lickin' good!

Things get hot'n'nasty straight from the off with "To The Bone" a raucous riff laden rocker that struts and stumbles along at a fine old pace incorporating along the way all the cliches and tropes we have come to expect from music with a southern bias, multiple guitar attack, husky vocal tones and lyrics that reference smoking weed and drinking alcohol, but it doesn't matter because this is exactly what we want when listening to music of this ilk and MuffDiver deliver it perfectly. Things couldn't get more "down home" you might be thinking but then they do with next track "The Healer" which finds the band jamming a song that can't decide if its a country tinged lament or a furious southern rock torch song and so settles on being both. "Childish Cruelty" and its follow up "In Your Honour" we shall deal with together as they both deal with depression and suicide with a level of candour and intelligence rare in rock music, the former chronicling an extreme reaction to years of childhood bullying, against a backdrop of groove reminiscent of early Black Stone Cherry, and the latter a heart wrenching open letter written to a troubled friend who the author knows will never read it, the song played out to a soundtrack of swirling bluesy guitars and sympathetic rhythms with the songs lyrics delivered in a voice wracked with a myriad of conflicting emotions. After the raw and heavy emotional subject matter of the last two songs you will be in sore need of something to raise the spirits and "Complete the Mission" does just that, it is an up-tempo romp driven by thundering bass and tight solid drumming that sees all three guitarists furiously competing with each other to be top dog, and if that's not enough there's even some crazy parping harmonica howling around the gritty soulful vocals to seal the deal and leave you with a big sloppy grin on your face

MuffDiver's "CTRL+P" is an EP that can have you leaping around throwing devils horns like someone obsessed thanks to its raucous southern tinted mix of stoner raunch and heavy rock bluster but it is also an EP that can reach deep down inside of you and dredge up memories and emotions you have long buried courtesy of its intense and intelligent tackling of , what some might consider, taboo subject matter. Life affirming and life questioning in equal measure "CTRL+P"is a monster of a debut!

Check it out ..... 

© 2023 Frazer Jones

STRIDER ~ MIDNIGHT ZEN ..... review

 

Turkey is not be the first country that will come to mind when discussing bands from the international underground music scene , bands from the USA and Britain will probably rank highest on most peoples lists with bands from countries like Greece, Sweden and Poland following close behind. Bands from Turkey, in all truth, would most likely not even get a mention so what better excuse could we have than to wax lyrical when one does pop up and then duly proceeds to blow us away.

Strider, Atılım Karaca (vocals); Selçuk Çelebi (guitars); Yiğit Çiçek (guitars); Sertuğ Kostik (bass) and Mertcan Kabaş (drums), hail from Ankara and their jam is a mix of raucous riffage and languid hazy psych fronted by strong clean melodic vocals (English), a sound the band describe as "a manic depressive and highly expressive musical journey", whether that statement holds water or not you can discover for yourselves when you take their debut "Midnight Zen" for a spin, we at Desert Psychlist think it does.

The stoner/desert element of Strider's sound is no more in evidence than on opening tune "Hive", after a brief, gradually increasing, droning effect the song bursts into life on a wave of  guitar fuelled desert fuzziness, that is probably a touch more Fu Manchu than it is Kyuss, and boasts upbeat vocals and more hooks than a cloakroom. "Sometimes it goes right sometimes wrong, who decides?" sings Karaca over a backdrop of chugging stoner groove on next song "Bystander Apathy" and to our ears this is a tune that goes extremely right, especially in its last quarter when those chugging riffs become interspersed with elements of languid haziness. The psych elements of Strider's groove are bought further to the fore on next track "Dream with the Dreamer", here the tightly driven raucousness of the albums two previous tracks is, in the songs initial stages, jettisoned for a more dreamy dynamic (with a vocal to match), only moving up to those same levels of  fuzzed out gnarliness as the song nears its climax. Up to the bat next is title track "Midnight Zen", the song opens with  Çelebi and Çiçek trading off Middle Eastern flavoured guitar motifs before the hammer goes down and Kostik and Kabaş throw their respective hats in the ring with some growling low end bass and thundering drums, the two guitarists taking this as a sign to stamp on their effects pedals and lay down some fuzz, only diverting from this  path to lay down a hazy and laid back middle section. Karaca's vocals here are sublime, he sings of  "paralyzing self doubt" and "salvation from the plight" in a voice that is edged with grit yet creamy and warm at its heart. Final song "Molly the Holy" has an almost Stone Roses (pioneers of the UK's Madchester movement of the late 80's/early 90's) feel to it, Karaca adds a fey wispiness to his vocals here which is totally in keeping with the music of that time, that said it is the searing guitar solos of  Çelebi and Çiçek that will remain in the memory long after the songs last note has faded into the ether.

Strider's "Midnight Zen" is a stunning debut that rages and rumbles but also swoons and sways, a perfect balance of light and shade that growls and snarls in the undergrowth one minute and soars majestically among the clouds the next, fuzz and finesse at its finest.

Check it out ..... 

© 2023 Frazer Jones

WIDERSIN ~ LOST IN GREY ..... review

Its not that often Desert Psychlist gets to review straight down the middle old school hard rock/heavy metal but the opportunity to do so was afforded to us when, quite by chance, we came across Greek combo WiderSin's debut album "Lost In Grey" nestling unloved in Bandcamp's heavy rock section. As is sometimes the case with bands new to Bandcamp there was very little on the bands album page to recommend them to listeners other than that the band hailed from Athens, Greece. Now regular readers will know that the Psychlist has a soft spot for music hailing from the Greek underground so we thought why not give said album a cursory spin, and if we don't like it we will simply move on, wow what a great decision that turned out to be.

"Cross the Line" was the first thing to erupt out of our speakers that fateful day and it became immediately obvious that WiderSin were not one of those stoner, psych or doom bands we had become used to encountering from Greece but where an ass whooping hard rock/heavy metal combo with a sound that blended 70's hard rock with 80's heavy metal (not the hair variety) and had in its armoury both melody and muscle. Another thing that became apparent quite quickly was the quality of the bands vocalist, Kostas Bouyotis , whose powerful clean distinctive vocals swooped and soared with rare clarity over the crunching chord progressions, booming bottom end and thunderous rhythms expertly laid beneath them by guitarist Karafyllis Giannoulis, bassist Yiorgos Moraitis and drummer Nikos Akousoglou. Surely this was a one off we thought that day, a happy accident, but next song "1000 Passwords" turned out to be just as good, if not better, and along with its superb riffs and outstanding vocals also boasted some sterling lead guitar work. And that is how it continued throughout the rest of the album, each song as strong and impactful as it predecessor with even the obligatory torch songs, "Stone" and "Port" earning our respect by not sounding cliched or over melancholic. What we were not expecting however was for the album to come to a close in such epic style as it did with  the exceptionally tasty "Father's Son" a spectacular tome packed to the rafters with searing guitar solo's, throbbing bass lines and tight solid drumming, eleven minutes plus of exceptional molten groove, a sort of "Free Bird" for metalheads.

WiderSin are a fairly new band (to us anyway) so you might expect the grooves that inhabit their debut album "Lost In Grey" to come across a little naïve and raw but that is just not the case, the band are on fire throughout and those grooves are bolstered by a production that allows each instrument the chance to shine and places the vocals perfectly in the mix in order to maximise their impact, a superb debut on every level.

Check it out .... 

© 2023 Frazer Jones

ELEPHANT GROOVE ~ ANNIHILATION .... review

We at Desert Psychlist spent quite a large chunk of 2022 listening to bands hailing from the Italian underground scene and we expect to be doing much the same again in 2023 as there seems to have been quite an explosion of creativity coming from that boot shaped country post Covid. The latest Italian band to assail our riff battered ears comes out of Milan and goes by the name of Elephant Groove, the band, Davide (guitar/vocals); Andrea (drums) and Jody (bass/keyboards),  have just released their debut "Annihilation" and like their band name would suggest its grooves are HUGE!

Opening song "Sargassum" opens with lilting guitar arpeggios circulating over and around each other slowly swelling in volume and intensity until finally being joined by the drums and bass in a Colour Haze like groove decorated in a clean melodic vocal. Let us remember though that Elephant Groove are an Italian trio and as you may have come to realise, from reading Desert Psychlist's reviews of bands like Demonio and Witchsnake, Italian bands do tend to love a filthy guitar tone and its not long before the urge to stamp on a fuzz pedal becomes overpowering and the trio launch into heavy stoner rock mode, only relenting from this course in the songs dying seconds. If you thought things got filthy on the opening number then steady yourself for next track "Kingdom", its caustic bass riffs, thunderous drumming and nasty guitar tones are manna from heaven for anyone who likes their grooves to come with a government heath warning, it also boasts some peachy keyboard work as well as a pretty impressive vocal. "One More Ride" follows and is a song dynamically split between spacious lysergic noodling and fuzz drenched heavy psych riffing over which a remote and hazy vocal holds sway. "Walls" shows that no matter how psychedelic you might get or how much distortion you may ladle on a song the blues will always find a way to make an appearance, here they manifests themselves in Davide's  swirling guitar solos which majestically soar and swoop despite Jody and Andrea's efforts to drown them in a sea of growling bass and pounding rhythms. For final song "Annihilation" the band initially go full steam ahead into heavy stoner territory, with the vocals taking on a similar air of gnarliness, but then the band give us a moment to catch our breaths by inserting into the song a languid and lysergic laced middle section before re-answering the call of their fuzz and distortion pedals and once again layering on the stoner nastiness, its quite a ride.

Not quite as caustic and filthy sounding as some of their Italian underground contemporaries and prone to taking off on tangents into more cosmic climes Elephant Groove are nonetheless a mouth-watering prospect for anyone who likes their music both languid and leathery.

Check 'em out .... 

© 2023 Frazer Jones

SOLAR TRIP ~ SOLAR TRIP ..... review

 

Usually Desert Psychlist likes to publish reviews relevant to the month they were released in but as Solar Trip's self-titled debut landed in that grey area between Christmas and New Year's Day we made an exception in their case. Solar Trip are Łukasz (guitar); Rob (guitar); Mateusz (drums) and Loolek (bass), an instrumental combo from Sosnowiec, Poland whose groove is of the type that became hugely popular in the early 00's via bands like Sungrazer, My Brother the Wind, The Machine and Colour Haze, a groove. much like prog, reliant on high levels of instrumental dexterity but with a looser. more spacious, less rigid format that many, these days, refer to as "heavy psych" or "post-rock" but we prefer to call "damn good music".

"Trip" is an important word when describing music of this ilk as what bands, in this field, are essentially trying to recreate is the musical equivalent of dropping a tab of acid and going on a journey through your own mind, attempting to create a place where musical notes are not just perceived as sounds but also as colours, shapes and textures. It is fitting then that the first three tracks of Solar Trip's debut are essentially one piece split into three movements, "Trip I - Temptation", "Trip II - Madness" and "Trip III - A Dream of....", each movement its own unique entity but each flowing into the next with seamless ease with no sudden shifting through the gears or abrupt left turns, a place where transitions are gradual and subtlety is king. Where the "Trip" triumvirate saw Solar Trip jamming a lysergic groove similar in nature to those bands mentioned in the opening section of this review the albums last two jams, "Everything is Relative" and "Mourn", find the band bringing into play a little more spaciousness, ambience and experimentation, with the exquisite "Mourn" getting extra brownie points for allowing each individual member of the quartet the room and space to flex their muscles and put their own markers down on this splendid album.

Instrumental rock music is anathema to some and manna from heaven for others while some can take it or leave it, depending on its quality, so lets not pretend "Solar Trip" is going to convert those from the first category, however those from the second and third categories are going to absolutely adore Solar Trip's soaring solos, ringing arpeggio's, undulating rhythms and liquid low end, its a TRIP maaan!

Check it out .... 

© 2023 Frazer Jones

RED SPEKTOR ~ 3 ...... review

Stoke-on-Trent's Red Spektor declare themselves as a "stoner/hard rock power trio with an old-school groove" and never have so few words so perfectly summed up a bands sound. In fact Desert Psychlist could easily leave it at that, safe in the knowledge that just that one sentence alone will grab a good percentage of our readers attention and see them checking out the bands music. However, that is not how we do things at the Psychlist and the bands latest, and third, album "3" deserves a more in-depth analysis and we are more than pleased to do just that.

"Dust" opens up proceedings and is a song that perfectly encapsulates Red Spektor's "old school stoner" ethos, its crunchy heavily fuzzed guitar refrains recall a time when all the best music was played, on make shift stages situated in deserts by bands whose backline was wired up to old, not quite fit for purpose, generators. It is a sound that is familiar yet at the same time fresh and of its time, a sound that although obviously influenced by the 90's desert scene also draws from the full gamut of rock history. Vocals for this song, and for that matter all the albums songs, are delivered in a warm, quietly powerful, husky drawl that gives them a vibe more in keeping with America's western regions than England's midland territories and adds a real gritty authenticity to the bands songs. Given the bands influences there is obviously a certain level of raucousness to be found in Red Spektor's grooves but they blend this aggressiveness with elements of soulful bluesiness and hard/classic rock swagger, elements that come galloping to the fore on songs like "Absolution" ,"Apple Tree" and the excellent "Progressive Toke" but are in truth evident, to differing levels, throughout every song on this gem of an album. 

Red Spektor's "3" is a kick ass album highly recommended for those who prefer their desert rock to be infused with elements of 70's classic, hard and blues rock rather than the punk rock that could be found at the root of the original Palm Desert scene. As the Stoke-0n-Trent born Lemmy once said "There's two kinds of music — music you like and music you don't like.", hopefully "3", for most of you, will fall into the former category.

Check it out .... 

© 2023 Frazer Jones