Review: 1000mods - "Valley of Sand"

1000mods are a quartet from Chiliomodi, Greece, schooled in the arts of black stoner metal, black imagery, and Black Sabbath. Their new four song EP entitled “Valley of Sand” is essentially a seventeen minute single with three live tracks. The single (“Valley of Sand”) is droney, sludgy, and dark repetitive mood music that slowly builds in dynamics, and I mean SLOW like a Mogwai record on quaaludes. It begins with whispery vocals, hovering around a swing drum feel very Bill Ward, so constantly flowing, it almost doesn’t feel like a rock band once you fall into it, but an ambient platform. The guitars trickle in with blues licks minute by minute while the rhythm section holds down the groove. 

The three live tracks are more upbeat. First, “7 Flies” is a hard rocker with garage rock production akin to those old MC-5 recordings. So many bands are striving for the sound of what The Stooges would have offered if they had made another album directly after Raw Power in the 70’s. 1000mods nail it. Unaffected by modern digitalia, the core ingredient of their music is raw collision jamming. I would assume this is chaotic music to witness live in a small club and monstrous in a arena sized venue. Few bands can pull this off, that vintage swamp-blues aura. “Navy in Alice” continues in this vain, swinging drums, crashing cymbals attacking the beat like it’s forceful in spite of itself. The mid-section is muted pulsing atop screaming vocals that sound like they’re reverberating through a gargantuan tunnel. About 3/4 into the song, a symphony of feedback explodes into a ripping guitar solo, like Tony Iommi through multiple Big Muffs. “Track Me” concludes this EP with a sense that this kind of music can only be produced live. It’s too pure to be tracked and overdubbed in a fancy modern studio. Dueling guitar leads make way for a staggering vocal presence reminiscent of Iggy Pop’s younger days, before he was a mere guttural howl. 

1000mods are not a brand new band, but their sound is fresh and something that’s not going to get stale. The more you listen, the more tripnotic they become. They paint a visionary picture of sorcery and black magic through their music, much like their influences, but they have their own thing when classification is in order. Anyone that wants raw-as-fuck stoner rock with their morning coffee will ‘get this’.

The members of 1000mods are:

Dani / Bass & Vox

Giannis / Guitars

 George / Guitars

Lab / Drums

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