Rhode Island sultans of groove Caracara, Ed Jamieson (guitars); Matthew Meehan (vocals); Christopher Colbath (bass) and Matt Johnson (drums), jam a groove that is a blending of 70's hard rock, 90's desert rock and present day heavy psych, agreed it is a sound not uncommon within this thing we call the "underground" but the panache and pizzaz they bring to the table with that sound most certainly is. Some may remember Caracara from their 2022 release "Vagrant Witness Canto", a release that reached a very respectable #11 on the December Doom Charts of that year and was described by Stoner Hive's Joop Konrad as "Stoner that will shake your bones and doom you soul. Impressive and powerful stuff!", and if someone with Joop's standing says something is powerful you better believe it is. The band return this year with "Hortis Mentis Cantos" four epic sized slices of grooviness guaranteed to blow both your mind and your socks off!
First out of the bag comes "Tom's Dog" a deliciously crunchy blend of desert rock haziness and hard rock swagger beneath which a bluesy undercurrent is omni-present. Meehan's vocals here, and for that matter throughout the album, are delivered in clean and powerful tones and are edged with an impressive soulful weariness that adds real gravitas to his words. It is however Jamieson's guitar work that really takes the breath away here, one minute he is ripping out caustic refrains the next he is laying down shimmering fractured chord work and when he's not doing either he's tearing out spiralling solos ably supported in all of his various guitar duties by Colbath's grizzled but bouncy bass lines and Johnson's industrious yet tidy and tight drumming. Next up is "Faceless Headress" its scorching guitar intro setting the tone for a track that has the structure of a song but in places feels like an impromptu jam, its groove taking off on tangents and spiralling down musical alleyways that are totally unexpected one of which is a funky passage over which Meehan delvers rap-like sermonizing. Third track "One Myr Boat Ride" begins bluesy and alternative with Johnson laying down a jazzy backbeat anchored by Colbeth's swinging bass, Jamieson adding texture to the mix with thrumming laid back guitar colouring around a Meehan vocal which borders on lounge lizard at times, well that is until the groove shifts into trip-hop territory in its last knockings and things get a little funky both musically and vocally. Final number "The Attendee's Attendance" is a magnificent and frankly quite mental romp that is part proto-metal, part heavy psych and part doom but refuses to commit to one style or the other, one minute all furious riffage screaming solos and incessant rhythms the next plodding doomic and bluesy with the band, vocally and musically, all bringing their A game into play.
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