By Gruesome Greg
Album number four from these Small Stone stoner vets shows that they haven’t lost their grooves after all these years—12, to be exact. Ever the pulsating, pounding, head-nodding goodness is what you’ll find inside.
This outfit leans more towards the straight-forward Fu Manchu style, as opposed to the tripped-out psychedelic grooves of Sky Valley-era Kyuss. (Cuz, y’know, there are really only two types of stoner rock: the former, or the latter.) That said, there are some pretty decent desert grooves to be found in the “Eye of the Storm,” for instance. The soulful, southern grooves and soaring vocals of “Sweet Lady” actually bring Canadian rockers Monster Truck to mind—although these guys have been doing it a lot longer (without quite as much recognition, mind you).
“Smoke Signal” is one of the longest songs here, at seven and a half, and it delivers some pretty righteous doom grooves along with a working-man’s wail that would make Wino proud. “Drawing Flies,” the other seven-minute number, also shows some shades of The Obsessed—which is obviously never a bad thing.
(Small Stone)
