Crypt Trip
Rootstock

How do I start a review about a band I just discovered and feel the urgency of a DeReview? It's a gamble! It's just the ecstasy of the moment! But who cares!!!

Randomly reading through the new reviews of the magazine of magazines in the music world "denoiartri," I come across Crypt Trip and immediately think of guys dressed as Egyptians high on peyote, no, that's Mexico, high on mummy ashes and stuff like that! The album is titled "Rootsrock," and I think again it's obvious! They must be on some kind of roots, hence they should be listened to, let's give these guys a chance! But something doesn't add up, so I type the title into the web researcher and… bam! It's not what I thought; it's not about Egypt, it's not about the 'plant of the Gods'; it's about Roots Rock! And here I apologize to everyone in advance for my ignorance, having lived 26 years unaware of the existence of this genre. But today, I remedy it!

Then come to my aid for references because I randomly shoot some, by ear, that is, to my ear! The album lasts about forty minutes, starts with a nice raw guitar strum, then seems slow... slow and trippy, basically a trip in the crypt, there's reverb, I start seeing green pharaohs and round pyramids when a stoner train hits me full and I fall off the chair! This is "Heartslave," a song split in two, first the quiet stoner visions, then the Black Sabbath-style hit, and then it returns to a quite a bit acid and Hard Rock-infused trip. To me, it seems more stoner rock than roots rock, from what I understand, but oh well.

After two or three songs, the album's watermark becomes clear; all tracks are mini-suites of 4-5-6 little minutes and mix these two or three different moods just mentioned. For "Boogie n. 6," it's the same thing; after a calm intro, a bass like "Pink Panther Theme Song" kicks in and then… bang!! A mess! The only thing that slightly disturbs me is the singer's voice, which reminds me too much of Iron Maiden, maybe even the exploding drums remind me a bit too much of Iron Maiden, but it doesn't matter. I overlook it. Instead, "Acquarena Daydream," always in suite mode, reminds me of a mix of Tame Impala (not today's rubbish, let's say something from Innerspeaker) and King Gizzard of "Quarters," the drums are a bit jazzy (not too much, eh) and the guitars get nasty towards the middle, then take off—as usual now I tend to say—towards the end.

More or less, the other songs are tuned to this frequency; I admit that the initial enthusiasm has already dropped a "little bit," but I believe it's worth going all the way through listening because, for me, it was pleasantly enjoyable even if, I repeat, a bit repetitive. The sound never changes; however, there is a lot of rhythm variation; it seems like a banquet arranged according to these parameters: first Stoner flambé, second Heavy (Metal) à la Maiden and company, a side of slightly sixties style drum, like "Jimi Hendrix Experience" to be exact, a bit of real jazz (very rarely) and Black Sabbath (even in the guy's voice you sometimes hear a distant Ozzy) and a dessert (lighter and more trippy) of new influences like the aforementioned King Gizzard and Tame Impala, and voilà, the banquet is served! Ave!