"Heavy Rotation"- Sungrazer-"Self-Titled"

The album I have in "Heavy Rotation" this week is the self-titled debut from Sungrazer.

Bio:

Sungrazer is a heavy rock three piece formed in the beginning of 2009. Their music ranges from psychedelic jams to stoner rock. Dutch music medium VPRO 3VOOR12 wrote: "After a mad and sometimes reckless journey through swamp and desert, the members of Sungrazer seem to have reached their final destination. Return to the stoner roots, so with a twist of Kyuss! Calm, rising and dragging riffs, sometimes with a psychedelic edge, alternate heavy droning choruses."

In May-July and September 2009 the band was involved in an international theatre production where they wrote music for a theater play called Wunschkamer. They played in theaters together with the actors of Theatergroep Het Vervolg from Maastricht and Theater K from Aachen. There they met Conny Schneider; she accompanies the band on saxophone occasionally.

In February 2010 they won the Nu of Nooit contest which means that they played at the Pinkpop festival 28th of May!!!

Sungrazer signed a record deal with Elektrohasch in May 2010.

Now onto the music...

The first time that I ever heard of Sungrazer was on the PlanetFuzz compilation Cowbells & Cobwebs and couldn't wait to get my hands on more music from the band. I must honestly say that since getting their latest self-titled album or 6 song-extended EP if you prefer, I cannot take this CD off of my MP3 player, therefore I am placing it in "Heavy Rotation".

As you would naturally expect by the name of the band, the obvious assumption would be that the band plays a brand of desert/psychedelic/stoner rock. Well if you did make that assumption you would be correct. Okay now a little bit about the music. The album as a whole is a great album to just put on the headphones and chill out to. Think of a mix between Kyuss and Colour Haze.

The band does a great job of starting off the songs soft and washy and eventually crushing you with a tidal wave of heavy, this is best evidenced on the song "Zero, Zero" which has a bit of a jazzy feel and is probably my favorite tune on the album. The grooves are thick and lumbering and go deep into your soul.

"Common Believer" starts off with a fantastic riff while drummer Hans Mulders beats the shit out of his cymbals, while keeping the listener on a steady ride through the desert. Vocalist and guitarist Rutger Smeets
(great name, by the way) has that cool as hell lazy vocal delivery and emits one of the best fuzzed-out guitar sounds I've ever heard. Bassist Sander Haagmans starts off "Mountain Dusk" with a down right funky groove as the song builds into another sonic blast of killer stoner rock goodness.

Each song is gradually epic, thunderously heavy, spacey, and beautifully melodic. What more can you ask for? I say just go listen for yourself, you'll be glad you did. This is worthy of Top 10 status for 2011 and will be on "heavy rotation" throughout the year and beyond.

Tracklist:

1.If
2.Intermezzo
3.Somo
4.Common Believer
5.Zero Zero
6.Mountain Dusk

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