There are not many bands out there where the name of the band does not match their music much more than Weedpecker. If you were unaware of the majestic beauty of their four records previous to their new one, aptly titled V, you would think they were another pot obsessed stoner band looking for new things to use as bongs and then write songs about the experience. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, some of my favourite songs are about the love of the magic plant.
The instrumental intro leads into Fading Whispers, which is pretty much what the song sounds like. A slow burn, atmospheric, Floyd inspired trip is what's going on here. At least until the track really kicks in and you are in outer space on a rocket blasting Hawkwind as loud as it can go. The Floyd thing still stands, but it is more like Floyd via Rush. Yes, the track is very synth heavy, but boy does it work. The vocals are amazing and the production is super clean, but not overdone or too shiny. The drum work on this song and all of V is excellent. This track is eleven minutes of perfection.
Weedpecker, however, are something completely different, and somewhat indescribable when trying to put their sound into words. Proggy, spacy, psych stoner rock with all sorts of stuff swirling around at any given time would be my elevator pitch if someone asked me what the band sounds like. That can mean a lot of different things to different people, but for the Polish band’s latest, let’s use words like epic, beautiful, and breath-taking and start from there.
The instrumental intro leads into Fading Whispers, which is pretty much what the song sounds like. A slow burn, atmospheric, Floyd inspired trip is what's going on here. At least until the track really kicks in and you are in outer space on a rocket blasting Hawkwind as loud as it can go. The Floyd thing still stands, but it is more like Floyd via Rush. Yes, the track is very synth heavy, but boy does it work. The vocals are amazing and the production is super clean, but not overdone or too shiny. The drum work on this song and all of V is excellent. This track is eleven minutes of perfection.
It is hard to follow up the opener, but they try with Ash. We are still on the Floyd path here, maybe even more so than on the last track, but then the riffs get chunky, and you can tell these guys still like to turn it up and bring the heavy. The guitar work stands out on this track for sure. Great stuff. There is so much going on in these compositions, as the dudes in Weedpecker are true masters of their craft, but it is never too much.
In The Dark We Shine is like a psych whisper, with harmonized vocals that hypnotize and great acoustic guitar work. This one is for the shroom crowd for sure. As mentioned before, the band can still rock, which is what the proggy Mirrors brings. Synth driven but still the heaviest song on the record, this one is like a Yes and Rush combo project, but while all parties involved are tripping. Oh, and when the pace picks up at the end? Killer stuff. V closes with The Last Summer Of Youth, another song that sounds like its name. A gentle, harmonized, psych trip, it is the ultimate comedown track, a perfect way to close this mind bending experience out.
Some may say V is a bit too synth heavy. They may say the songs are too long. Or maybe they just don’t like beautiful, complex, epic compositions where you hear something new and amazing every time you listen to it. I can’t help those people, but I wish them the best, because the six tracks Weedpecker brings on V make up a new instant classic that should be experienced by all. 10/10
Wille And The Bandits - Salt Roots (Self-Released) [Mark Young]
When Joe Bonamassa drops praise on a band, especially one from the UK you tend to take notice. Whilst blues rock is not something that I would normally listen to; I’m trying to make a conscious effort to listen to music that sits outside the extreme genre and try to flex my musical tastes a bit.
More importantly, the album and associated UK tour is in partnership with Surfers Against Sewage.
Wheal Jane, the curtain raiser observes what I believe to be the standard form; quiet and restrained into loud chorus, and in that respect it doesn't disappoint. It has that feel to it, a sense of authenticity that it's presented from a place of honesty and so it shines through the material. The slide guitar is gorgeous (Well, Joe did say) and as a result it's a solid opener. They let loose a little on Trouble round the bend, which is all about getting you up and moving. Live, you can see these two as the opening 1-2, the latter’s choice of those chords setting it up in anthemic territory.
That sense of getting warmed up continues with King Kong, whose groove is as monstrous as the titular Ape himself. In some respects, it's like they have taken the handbrake off and started to enjoy the trip without moving too far away from blues rock umbrella. What doesn't disappoint is the voice of Wille, constantly delivering earnest and powerful vocals that never dominate the music on each track. The quality is consistent as we move into the closing stages; Know My Name keeps that swagger in place whilst Saul Away (The Mayflower) is this album’s ‘hold your phone up’ moment.
Alas, everything ends, and with Homeward Bound they close things out nicely. It's the pacing that works so well, because It's in balance with the rest of the album, it doesn't try to go down a different path or do something different. They are just good songs, written from an honest place and played with passion. I mentioned that my knowledge of UK blues-rock is limited, but I know who Joe Bonamassa is. And in his comments about this band, he’s 100% correct. 7/10
Izzy And The Black Trees – Kisses To Chaos (Antena Krzyku) [Cherie Curtis]
What sets Izzy And The Black Trees apart is their creative build on curated clashing. Throughout this album we have high frequency and sharp guitars needled in, its thin piercing and jittery which contrasts the vocals and slowly brings another level of atmosphere to what we initially hear. This contrast works as it keeps us on our toes as we can't comfortably settle; the vocals and lyrical theme are trying to frantically tell us one story while the instrumentals sell us another.
The vocals add an interesting layer. It’s the typical bold, clear and raw punk sound with lots of repetition and an emotive spoken word delivery that builds tension and energy in the way we expect from this genre by adding some emotional urgency which is enhanced by subtle complexities of the instrumentals. The vocals cut through the track like a knife, and the rest politely takes the back seat for this one.
Izzy And The Black Trees give a quiet seethe of contained anger and trades in aggressive eruptions of choruses and riff heavy breakdowns that we are used too, for highly concentrated layers of lead and backing vocals being the main source of energy and a blur of sounds of different pitches and paces coming from the instrumentals as an undercurrent which creates a disorienting slurry than an abrasive drop.
Marseille is a personal favourite of mine; it has a slow and alluring creep to it which is slightly different to what the other tracks in this album offers and I love a good set refresh. Its delivery is clear and repetitive with a sarcastic edge that feels smooth and hypnotic that swells like a breeze on a gloomy day, while being less energetic than the others, it still has an exciting build but it’s more patient.
Kisses Of Chaos is worth a listen. They are polished and deliberate and set in a style that's unique to them. They are paving their own way by toeing the line between predictable and experimental without it being obvious. At first i wasn’t sure if anything stuck out to me but as time went on i picked up the subtle intricacies that kept me interested.
Overall, it's a solid album - a great casual listen. It’s flashy but fundamentally simple and Izzy And The Black Trees wield that simplicity like a weapon, by stripping back the usual punk rock noise and prioritizing a creative vocal delivery over technical prowess we have a great indie rock / punk rock fusion album which gets you grooving. 7/10
Plagued - Rotting Dominions (Self Released) [Matt Bladen]
It's not often that band that are only a few years old manage to get the legend that is Dan Swanö to master their debut EP but that's exactly what East Anglian death metal unit Plagued have done. A good thing that their music is steeped in the gore-soaked Swedeath of Bloodbath, along with that modern old-school death of bands such as Gatecreeper and Creeping Death, adding all kinds of other audio nastiness across five tracks.
That Swanö master means that these chainsaw riffs feel like they're tearing at your flesh from the beginning of Boneshaper. Plagued are obsessed with the riff, all of their songs are anchored by them, one moment they are blasting away with ferocious speed, then in an instance it shifts into a heavy grind, as a stomp such as Sporebone can so easily segue into the modern hardcore influenced death of Malediction and beatdown heavy Fentylation.
Some may say V is a bit too synth heavy. They may say the songs are too long. Or maybe they just don’t like beautiful, complex, epic compositions where you hear something new and amazing every time you listen to it. I can’t help those people, but I wish them the best, because the six tracks Weedpecker brings on V make up a new instant classic that should be experienced by all. 10/10
Wille And The Bandits - Salt Roots (Self-Released) [Mark Young]
When Joe Bonamassa drops praise on a band, especially one from the UK you tend to take notice. Whilst blues rock is not something that I would normally listen to; I’m trying to make a conscious effort to listen to music that sits outside the extreme genre and try to flex my musical tastes a bit.
More importantly, the album and associated UK tour is in partnership with Surfers Against Sewage.
Wheal Jane, the curtain raiser observes what I believe to be the standard form; quiet and restrained into loud chorus, and in that respect it doesn't disappoint. It has that feel to it, a sense of authenticity that it's presented from a place of honesty and so it shines through the material. The slide guitar is gorgeous (Well, Joe did say) and as a result it's a solid opener. They let loose a little on Trouble round the bend, which is all about getting you up and moving. Live, you can see these two as the opening 1-2, the latter’s choice of those chords setting it up in anthemic territory.
That sense of getting warmed up continues with King Kong, whose groove is as monstrous as the titular Ape himself. In some respects, it's like they have taken the handbrake off and started to enjoy the trip without moving too far away from blues rock umbrella. What doesn't disappoint is the voice of Wille, constantly delivering earnest and powerful vocals that never dominate the music on each track. The quality is consistent as we move into the closing stages; Know My Name keeps that swagger in place whilst Saul Away (The Mayflower) is this album’s ‘hold your phone up’ moment.
Alas, everything ends, and with Homeward Bound they close things out nicely. It's the pacing that works so well, because It's in balance with the rest of the album, it doesn't try to go down a different path or do something different. They are just good songs, written from an honest place and played with passion. I mentioned that my knowledge of UK blues-rock is limited, but I know who Joe Bonamassa is. And in his comments about this band, he’s 100% correct. 7/10
Izzy And The Black Trees – Kisses To Chaos (Antena Krzyku) [Cherie Curtis]
What sets Izzy And The Black Trees apart is their creative build on curated clashing. Throughout this album we have high frequency and sharp guitars needled in, its thin piercing and jittery which contrasts the vocals and slowly brings another level of atmosphere to what we initially hear. This contrast works as it keeps us on our toes as we can't comfortably settle; the vocals and lyrical theme are trying to frantically tell us one story while the instrumentals sell us another.
The vocals add an interesting layer. It’s the typical bold, clear and raw punk sound with lots of repetition and an emotive spoken word delivery that builds tension and energy in the way we expect from this genre by adding some emotional urgency which is enhanced by subtle complexities of the instrumentals. The vocals cut through the track like a knife, and the rest politely takes the back seat for this one.
Izzy And The Black Trees give a quiet seethe of contained anger and trades in aggressive eruptions of choruses and riff heavy breakdowns that we are used too, for highly concentrated layers of lead and backing vocals being the main source of energy and a blur of sounds of different pitches and paces coming from the instrumentals as an undercurrent which creates a disorienting slurry than an abrasive drop.
Marseille is a personal favourite of mine; it has a slow and alluring creep to it which is slightly different to what the other tracks in this album offers and I love a good set refresh. Its delivery is clear and repetitive with a sarcastic edge that feels smooth and hypnotic that swells like a breeze on a gloomy day, while being less energetic than the others, it still has an exciting build but it’s more patient.
Kisses Of Chaos is worth a listen. They are polished and deliberate and set in a style that's unique to them. They are paving their own way by toeing the line between predictable and experimental without it being obvious. At first i wasn’t sure if anything stuck out to me but as time went on i picked up the subtle intricacies that kept me interested.
Overall, it's a solid album - a great casual listen. It’s flashy but fundamentally simple and Izzy And The Black Trees wield that simplicity like a weapon, by stripping back the usual punk rock noise and prioritizing a creative vocal delivery over technical prowess we have a great indie rock / punk rock fusion album which gets you grooving. 7/10
Plagued - Rotting Dominions (Self Released) [Matt Bladen]
It's not often that band that are only a few years old manage to get the legend that is Dan Swanö to master their debut EP but that's exactly what East Anglian death metal unit Plagued have done. A good thing that their music is steeped in the gore-soaked Swedeath of Bloodbath, along with that modern old-school death of bands such as Gatecreeper and Creeping Death, adding all kinds of other audio nastiness across five tracks.
That Swanö master means that these chainsaw riffs feel like they're tearing at your flesh from the beginning of Boneshaper. Plagued are obsessed with the riff, all of their songs are anchored by them, one moment they are blasting away with ferocious speed, then in an instance it shifts into a heavy grind, as a stomp such as Sporebone can so easily segue into the modern hardcore influenced death of Malediction and beatdown heavy Fentylation.
Dragging you into these Rotting Dominions, Plagued make sure to soundtrack it with some old school death, vast landscapes of crumbling infrastructure, demolished by the crushing riffs and guttural vocals of this English death crew. 8/10
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