QUICK HIT: Bionic Cavemen - "Reactor"

Late in 2013 I had stumbled across an up and coming band and their initial release, "Predator", naming it my Number 9 favorite album of 2013. The 4 gentlemen from Chicago are back with their latest release, an eleven track LP that blisters and burns with savage blues rock fury. The hallmark of stoner/retro/blues rock music is, of course, the massive, gargantuan guitars, amplified to sun blocking heights, and Bionic Cavemen have emphatically perfected this aspect of their music, although thankfully not at the expense of their wonderful lead vocalist whose ragged, raging vocals are an aural injection of sheer pleasure. Add to the mammoth sound and spine-chilling vocals are an opus of songs that are immediately engaging with an additional genius of structure and design. This is no mean feat when combined with a sound that is typically simple and powerfully primal, which "Reactor" is upon first listen. But, even at first listen you hear 'more', the kind of 'more' that will keep you spinning it as much for the mind-numbing riffs as for the admiration and enjoyment of high craft embedded throughout, just waiting for discovery.

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Album Review: "The Bushgate" - Samba Cemetery

Are you looking for something fresh, something with a bit of the new, something that tickles that desert/stoner rockbone without directly rehashing a thousand albums already consumed? Samba Cemetery's "The Bushgate" might just be the thing to trigger that rewind button interface on your music app and perk up your stoner rock antennae.

There are some sharp metal edges and thickly welded melodies throughout this 5 song EP that opens with the title track, an instrumental that will make you think you're in for a psychedelic excursion before it smoothly segues into a huge riff barrage. "Samba" gives way to "Blast of the Rex" where fast and fierce rhythms fuel the launch of this EP juggernaut for the album's duration.

"Rolling" catches it's breath....just for a bit... before itself expending jet fuel to hurl us into the deep, dark recesses of this vibrant, viscous concoction of sand, sound, and steel.

"Help Me Breathe" is mighty. It's muscular. It's a mammoth rendering of the razor edges Samba Cemetery wield with an assassin's relish.

The EP closes out with a perfect coup de grace, "Last Samba", a long agonizing burn off of sugar and sweetness to reveal pointy crags of sharp rock, the cracking timber of splintering oak trees, and precisely honed riffs of gleaming metal edges.

Hailing from Berlin this powerful threesome include:
Ruben Leon - Vocals, Guitar
Lukas Weber - Drums
David Gi - Bass

Leon's vocals are pure barbed razor and rusty iron rebar, slicing and cleaving in and through his equally dangerous sharp riffs and bruising runs on guitar.

Gi has brought the big hammer to the job with his bombardier bass perfectly rendering the primal underpinnings of the music.

Weber's drumwork is unrelenting, unstoppable, and invanquishable, pummeling and pounding in a pugilistic onslaught, never retreating behind or below his amplified brethren.

Together this threesome are able to deliver that rare bond between superbly crafted melodies and expertly delivered renditions of such.

When all is told this short foray of lustful metal is blissful and refreshing, well worth a kickback and listen, a bandcamp and chill, or a Heavy Planet and Jam.

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Album Review: Triggerman - "Hail to the River Gods"

Hailing from Derry, Northern Ireland come a hard hitting, rock breaking, sledge hammer of a band that has one goal in mind when cranking out their seven splendid tunes on the new release, “Hail to the River Gods” and that’s to . . . well, to ROCK! Plain and simple. Their music is plain and simple, by design, but not at the expense of any detail for it is overflowing with energy and power, craft and material. The effort is there, in spades. The talent is there, they are a mightily gifted foursome. The skill is there, these guys have put in the time. They have very carefully, and whole-heartedly crafted a collection of tunes that play heavy on the loud, on a central theme of huge guitars, of granite splitting trap set ricochets, of the earthquake rumble of an all out battery of bass riffs, of a front man soliloquy surrounded by the blitzkrieg assault of fully loaded instrumentation, all wrapped up in a party atmosphere carefully crafted from painstaking care in songcraft and delivery.

Triggerman consist of:

Bap on Vocals and Guitar
Niall on Guitar
Rory on Drums
Dixie on Bass

These guys play hard and play well, with a fierceness and a joy that is the hallmark of great rock.

The album is huge, with seven meaty songs that will have you wearing a whiplash collar the following day. They start the album off with “Rage of the Goddess”, calling in all rubes with a promise of heavy riffs and fire inducing solos, slammed into a box of deep bass, and pounded shut with a thousand drumbeats.

“Rise of the Woodsman” is fast and fuzzy, led by huge guitars and Bap’s Carny Bark vocals that drive it all home.

The title track, “Hail to the River Gods” is third, picking up the same huge and heavy sound of its predecessors, this time delivering a gung ho melody of inspiration and adventure.

“Th’on Strange Brew” is tight and fun, a jab, jab, hook type of rhythm that delivers big on sound and enjoyment.

Next up is “The Flower of Life”, following the tried and true formula already established, just a fun and heavy construction of complex guitars and hard hitting drums, wrapped up in a thunder of bass riffage.

Time to deliver even louder, bigger, harder, faster because the outcome of number six is to “Wake the Dead”. Are they successful? Hell Yeah!! This hairy adventure is full of fury and fun.

The closer is a long slow build up of power and angst, building step by step to a huge, compelling climax of what Triggerman deliver best - straight up guitars as big as Hell, hard pounding drums, heavy granite busting bass, and a no frills vocal delivery.

This album is nothing but pure and unadulterated metal, delivering finely crafted rock that is rock as it should be. It is roaring thunder and crashing tidal waves, freight trains rolling across the night desert through a maelstrom of hail and crashing lightning. It is the constant staccato rhythm of big city construction pounding relentlessly away at concrete and steel. It is the spartan assault of 2 guitars, bass, drums, and unique vocal delivery that form the phalanx for a lean and brutal assault on the senses. It is music you can drink whiskey to, music you can pound your fist to, music you can party to, music you can fornicate to, raw and primal, with the pure essence and power of man in peak primordial form.

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