Mini
album (maxi EP?) from Italian power trio heads for the stars with
their stellar stoner, drone and space-rock.
Having been aware of
Italy's Black Rainbows since the band's second album Carmina
Diablo, it's obvious from the first few seconds that the band
have progressed. The heavy stoner rock is still there but there's
been a broadening of musical palette.
Space-rock,
stoner, drone and boogie are all represented, with even some Jimmy
Page style acoustic riffage for good measure.
With
only six, albeit long songs on this album, Black Rainbows have
managed to display a range of styles and moods that somehow make for
a satisfyingly cohesive whole. The album's opening title
track is a five minute slice of prime stoner rock grooves complete
with '60s space-race themed spoken word samples. Rewarding enough on
its own things then take off for avenues new.
Monsters Of The Highway
harks back to the sort of noise that used to to be heard at Reading
Rock Festival in its pre-student-friendly days, when the Hell's
Angels ruled the campsite. A heads down blues rock number with
post-Hendrix guitar soloing, it's the perfect soundtrack for your
speed 'n' snakebite consumption. Then there's the curve ball of
Chakra Temple a softer, meditative number with its spiralling eastern
scales over a constant rhythmic drone. Definitely not your standard
muscle-headed metal.
The Hunter (no not the
Free song) will keep fans of Carmino Diablo and its follow-up,
Supermothafuzzalicious happy. (Check out the video below).
More surprises next when a distorted hacking cough vocal leads into
If I Was A Bird, a track which owes a debt to Jimmy Page's acoustic
riffing on Led Zepellin III. Probably recorded on a Welsh
mountainside. The album closes with a version of MC5's Black To Comm,
which is given a lengthy Hawkwind space-rock makeover. For all the
non-metalheads out there, don't think you wouldn't enjoy this record.
There's an intelligence, sensitivity and even humour to this record
that a lot of metallic fare lacks. You'll be pleasantly surprised.
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