These Socks don’t stink! The French quartet brews a blend of pungent, throwback heavy psych on their Small Stone debut. Kicking off with “Lords of Illusion,” The Socks use their illusion to channel Hendrix, Purple and Sabbath throughout this nine-track, 44-minute effort.
There are also shades of modern bands like Monster Truck on the organ-accented opener, while “Some Kind of Sorcery” channels the likes of Red Fang and The Sword, all while putting their own spin on things. “New Kings” brings us some up-tempo grooves before bringing things all the way down to Doomsville; ditto “Holy Sons” and its gloomy intro, though it mellows out somewhat from there. In any case, they certainly don’t bang out the same song for three-quarters of an hour…
Hell, the epic flourishes of 6+ minute album-closer “The Last Dragon” even have a bit of a power-metal thing going on. Not that there’s anything wrong with that (I guess).
