Review - Blaak Heat Shujaa - Blaak Heat Shujaa

 

These guys were recently featured as our New Band To Burn One To. The band is Blaak Heat Shujaa and are a three piece from France. Their style is psychedelic rock. Their debut self titled album was produced by the legendary Scott Reeder (The Obsessed, Kyuss). Before you listen to the album make sure you pick your poison before you listen away.

First off, the shortest track is 3:10 and the longest is 11:07. The entire album comes in at 9 songs at 64 minutes. It's one long psychedelic stoner rock song after the other. While mostly instrumental, there are some sung parts. The easiest band to compare them to is Naam. I don't know if Naam is an influence with these guys but they do share the same style and fans of Naam will love these guys just as much. Even fans of Tool would be right at home.

I've had a chance to listen through the album twice now and I'm quite impressed. The attention to detail on the album is amazing. Mr. Reeder has done a really good job at producing this album. Everything is mixed in evenly and no one part drowns out the other. "The Pest" is my favorite track. It incorporates some really great guitar work. "Moon" starts off with some really trippy sounds and then the guitars kick in. It has some prominent bass riffs in the middle and even some maracas. Then as you get close to the end the guitars kick in again. The song ends just as it starts but leads into the final track of the album, "Moon Part II."

This band and their album came out of no where. They wrote us and I checked them out. I'm glad they did because what they have here is very special. The album is great, they have a great producer and a great sense of what they're doing. While this album isn't something you throw on while you drive down the block to grab some milk, you could get away with a track on the drive. This album is meant to be listened to in one sitting from start to finish. It just completes the experience. They only have 3 tracks on on their Myspace page but they are good samples of what to expect from their self titled debut. If you like desert rock, psychedelic rock or bands such as Tool, Naam, Colour Haze or even Earthless, you'll like Blaak Heat Shujaa.

New Band To Burn One To - Blaak Heat Shujaa

 

As also seen on The Soda Shop

Blaak Heat Shujaa was born in 2008. The band members weren’t outcasts, but they weren’t exactly the social type either. Dying old and lonely after a lifetime struggling to feed their psychedelic music habit while living in the city of high fashion and through-the-roof beer prices wasn’t a happy prospect. This is why when they met, too happy to have found one another in a sea of opulent, cash-worshipping, cocktail-sipping conformists, Thomas Bellier, Antoine Morel-Vulliez, and Tim Gacon immediately formed BHS.
The band took time to develop its own sound and reach its current cruising speed, as external factors led its members to spend time abroad. But instead of getting in the way of BHS’s development, those travels to foreign lands (California, Tanzania, Uganda, Spain) have allowed each member to bring in and incorporate influences from inspiring and peculiar horizons into their work.
This probably accounts for the fact that the sound BHS developed has been described as truly original. In fact, the band members have always loathed the idea of simply trying to recreate another band’s sound, as so many bands ufortunately settle for today. The BHS material aspires to provoke mental introspection and spiritual trip through dreamy effects and fuzzy riffs while at the same time paying homage to the heritage of 1990s heavy music.
This might be the reason why BHS have never felt part of a “scene”: their sound doesn’t fit pre-established musical categories, but rather spans several genres, including neo-psychedelia, stoner rock, and desert rock. However, the band’s recent involvement with former Kyuss bassist Scott Reeder (producer of BHS’s 2010 debut album : Blaak Heat Shujaa), as well as the other bands with whom they have shared the bill, definitely make them a part of today’s ever-evolving stoner rock scene.

They currently only have 3 songs up on their Myspace page which sound pretty damn good. They're a mix of stoner, desert rock and psychedelic rock. They remind me a little bit of Naam. Their debut album is due out next month. Look for a review soon. Meanwhile, check out their Myspace page for a few songs and leave your thoughts in the comments below.