Lesados - Leziria (album review)

Lesados play stoner rock which has grown from the cracks of a punk rock foundation.  They have the same kind of driving, hypnotic, almost robotic riffs and rhythms that were a main feature of Josh Homme's early years.  When a guitarist just riffs away forever like that it creates a juggernaut of momentum.  This is true of track one "Porque?", a hypnotic drill of head down riff mongering and brick wall smashing.  As the song and album titles suggest, Lesados' lyrics are all in Portuguese.

On "Neblina", the band get into some slow riff doom territory, while maintaining a crusty punk edge which is always apparent in the vocals, upping the tempo for the chorus.  While older Black Pyramid and Devil have a doom punk thing going, Lesados have a different feel, capturing more of the original spirit of The Obsessed in its combination of styles.  "Olival" keeps the doom rolling with grooves a-plenty, once again scratching out simplistic, heavy and ultimately satisfying riffs, which seems to be a dying art.

In many ways, 'Leziria' features a misleading album cover.  Where one might expect to hear some slow burning dusty crop blues inflected rock, Lesados keep a steady pace.  So steady in fact that the bulk of the songs are a nearly uniform length with the exception of closing track, "Zona", an 11 minute romp which also features a hidden riff-o-rama track.  'Leziria' is fast-paced, riff-mad, heavy rock n roll.  As the album progresses, the feel of the album cover becomes a little more apparent on tracks like "Cadáveres" and "Zona".

So what you're getting here is some fast paced, punk-inflected stoner rock with rural moments and insistent riffs.  The doomier moments fall within the bracket of what Corrosion of Conformity is doing these days, which is a good band to keep in mind when approaching Lesados, especially on "Neblina".  Best part of all, you can download this gem for half a friggin' euro on the band's bandcamp page, now.

Highlights include: "Neblina" and "Porque?"

Rating: 4.5/5

Total Run Time: 37:59

From: Alverca, Portugal

Genre: Stoner, Punk, Doom

Reminds me of: Corrosion of Conformity, The Obsessed

Release Date: March 17, 2013

Better Review:
Stoner Hive

Lesados facebook

Miss Lava - Red Supergiant (album review)

Cover artwork by Jose Mendes for Maga-Atelier

Miss Lava came under the intense scrutiny of Paranoid Hitsophrenic's gaze when they signed a deal with Small Stone Records to release this very album later on in the year.  The label's other three recent signees were all familiar faces here: Gandhi's Gunn (now Isaak), The Socks and It's Not Night: It's Space.  Who were these Miss Lava guys anyway?  I immediately set to find out.

Miss Lava blast onto the scene with high-powered album opener "Desert Mind", setting a high standard for action-packed rip-roaring rock n roll which doesn't flag or waver.  11 tracks and 42 minutes long, the band gets in, gets the money and enters the idling getaway car without ever once stumbling, never overstaying their welcome despite the same-iness of the compositions overall.  It's not that the band recycles riffs or the songs all sound alike, but once that petal is on the floor, they don't bother very often to mix in different tempos or feels.  It's like going down a steep hill in a shopping cart, no brakes on this ride, baby!

Actually, there are three songs that momentarily tap the brake on this bad boy, two songs which can be considered the band's midtempo material and one slow one, breaking up the nearly relentless flow of the album.  "Hole To China" which still rocks much ass despite being one of the slower cuts on the record and "Ride".  Already a massive hit in the Doom Charts, it's a slow hammer of groove, matched nowhere else on this fine record than perhaps "Yesterday's Gone".  A streamlined machine of fuzz guitar, clean drums and vocals and thumping bass.  The album closes with the title song which is probably the slowest one.  At 4:29 it's also the second longest track on the record.  See how they get the money and run?

As I alluded to earlier, Small Stone will be releasing a re-mixed, re-mastered version of the album this summer.  It's a good job too because the production by bassist Sam Rebelo is a couple inches thin of the full bodied sound this band so richly deserve.  As for the version that's currently available at such online retailers as Ozium Records webshop, the CD is a truly nice package.  A die-cut cover with transparent red film opens onto a silhouetted picture of the band staring at a red sun going nova (you can make a bit of it out on the album cover photo above).  Overall it's a nice looking, and unique, package worth picking up for no other reason than the amazing music contained therein which the booklet itself implores the listener to "Play it loud and proud".  Not a problem, this may prove to be Small Stone's best release of the year, and for a year that is only a third gone and has already seen the official releases of Mother of God and Gozu's latest albums, I don't choose those words lightly.

Here's the band's self-produced video for "Ride", it was my introduction to the band and it might as well be yours.  If you do watch I guarantee you will see how much ass their rock n roll feet kick.



Highlights include: "Ride" and "Desert Mind"

Rating: 4.5/5

Total Run Time: 42:37

Johnny Lee - Vocals
Samuel Rebelo - Bass
J. Garcia - Drums
K. Raffah - Guitars

From: Lisbon, Portugal

Genre: Stoner, Hard Rock

Reminds me of: Clutch, Deville, The Shooters

Release Date: December 3, 2012, remixed, remastered Small Stone Records release Summer 2013

Suggested listening activity for fellow non-stoners: Get in your shopping cart and ride!

Better Review:
Sludge Factory
Sea of Tranquility

Miss Lava on facebook

Miss Lava official website

The Quartet of Woah! - Ultrabomb (album review)

And now for something completely different.

The Quartet of Woah! do indeed impress, as their name implies, on their debut album.  13 songs,  60 minutes long, each song makes a unique musical statement.  They live alone on a tiny island just outside of Stoner Rock, unfettered by laws or conventions, free to do as they wilt, creating something unique and different.

The Quartet of Woah! show tremendous ability to handle melody and harmony while showing a broad range of influences and sounds from fuzz so heavy it could only have been dredged from the deepest and blackest of ocean trenches to harmonies so light and delicate they might have more properly fallen on mountain tops than on record.  There are moments of Yes-style close harmony, Queen-style operatic aria, John Lennon-style piano crooning and Truckfighters-style fuzz battery, just to name but a few of their musical stylings.

Opening cut "Master Lever Had a Dream" is a skull and crossbones warning to any who aren't ready.  Awash in harmony and Animals-style organ, while still maintaining a hard edged silhouette as did the best of the 60s psychedelic pop bands.  It's as fine and as honest an opening shot across the bow as one would hope to find.  The title track then continues the trend into 60s pop psych lightness with a piano and vocal melody that would make Jeff Lynne beam with pride, especially in his earlier Idle Race incarnation.  Not what one might expect, to be sure.  It all paves the way for "Taste of Hate", a downtuned potboiler of heavy fuzz and pounding rhythm, the contrast between these two sides of the band lending the latter track all the more impact.  "The Announcer" then glides in sounding sugary in comparison, though not as sugary as the opening two tracks.  By the end of the song however, it's actually a great blend of the two sides of the band; the sugary 60s psych pop side and the fuzzy stoner side.  The two together create nearly a Wolf Parade kind of atmosphere.

Now that we've gotten to know The Quartet of Woah! it leaves little left in the way of surprise for the rest of the album, right?  "How To Build a Bomb?" is mostly an instrumental with a group shout that wafts in and out atop an uptempo fuzz rock and Doors-ish organ freakout.  Now that was different.  "Prodigal Son" begins with some Yes-style harmony and spills out into a syncopated downtempo platter of pounding rhythms.  "Empty Stream" is a short organ and fuzz rock headbanger which leads to the piano driven Lennon / Nilsson crooning intro of "The Path of Our Commitment".  The song then leads to an understated fuzz rock verse and chorus and seemingly burns itself out only to be reborn in a Queen style resurrection of piano and epic vocals.  The full band then comes back and kicks into fuzz monster mode.  It's one of the longer tracks (one of two over seven minutes) but it's an impressive display of what the band is capable of as a whole.

The next three have a lot in common and show the first signs that the band has settled into an identity that is both comfortable and individualized; that of organ driven fuzz rock with syncopated rhythms.  "Ode to Liberty" is a fuzz and organ driven rocker.  "Balance" has a nearly Jimi Hendrix like opening riff that leads to another Yes / Queen style harmony over a simplified carnival-like syncopated organ driven rhythm.  "Slingshot Sam" scratches out a complex organ and fuzz driven rhythm.  The album tops off in grand style with a pair of epic songs. In "The Machine Limps Toward The End" the band is content to let the organ swell away in the background and let the vocals do the talking, so to speak.  Closing track "U Turn" is not only the longest song it may be the most representative of the band on an album full of interesting songs.  It's organ driven fuzz rock with an interesting syncopated rhythm.  If the listener remains unconvinced after previewing this song, chances are he won't be convinced by the rest of the album.  But I'm willing to bet there's a little something here for everyone.

Highlights include: "Taste of Hate" and "Ultrabomb"

Rating: 4/5


Total Run Time: 1:00:30

From: Lisbon, Portugal

Genre: Rock, Stoner Rock, Fuzz Rock, Progressive Rock

Reminds me of: Electric Light Orchestra, John Lennon, Queen, Truckfighters

Release Date: November 25, 2012

Suggested listening activity for fellow non-stoners: Storm the sand blasted walls of the Martian king's desert palace.