Colour Haze
CO2

I'll admit it, it's not that Germans are particularly likable to me. Opinions, prejudices, and clichés about Germans, as you know, are numerous. They speak ill of Italy and yet always come here on vacation (maybe in some camping site), they wander folkloristically free through our streets, respecting the red light even when on foot and there isn’t a soul around.

Lately, however, my antipathy for the Germans of (C)ermany is inexorably diminishing, proportionally to the growing desire to listen just and always to Colour Haze. Are you about to go to work taking the shortcut through the fields? Well, then you need: "Mountain" by Colour Haze. Want to hype yourself up like a beast before a five-a-side soccer match? Well, then play it safe, put on: "Tempel". Are you perhaps intimately secluded with someone whose genital organ is different from yours? No doubts, friend, put it on: "Inside". It's from this last gem I mentioned that my personal quest began for yet another splendid album produced by the wondrous trio of Munich.

"CO2" (2000-MonsterZeroRecords), continues pretty much on the same path taken by the previous: "Periscope"; a fair compromise between the alternation of a sometimes smooth and relaxing style, sometimes loaded with massive and mean riffs. We are not yet at the pinnacle of Colour Haze's production (the masterpieces will come over the years, in sequence, one after the other), but it begins to shine ("Shine" to be exact) and stand out on the "stoner" scene, the distinctive and particular sound of Stefan Koglek's band (also a splendid voice, by the way). From the first song up to the more than 40 minutes of the entire album, rest assured that sooner or later that damn blues-style solo will always arrive punctually and sharply that makes me love them so much and at the same time makes them immediately recognizable and original even a few miles away. Influences? It's easy to think of Kyuss, but absolutely in my humble opinion, not derivative. Rather, stably and persistently, the good soul of Giacomino Hendrix hovers, followed hot on its heels here and there by something that recalls the seventies period, always in the form of mini-jam sessions (another absolute strength of the group).

Simply the best stoner-rock group currently around. Because Josh Homme won't go back to Kyuss anymore. Because a "red sun in the valley of the sky" we won't see anymore. Because now there are them: Colour Haze. Because I put on: "All right" and..."i feel all right, i feel ok, this is the place i wanna stay": sacred words.