Earthride
Something Wicked

We who love the mold on the sandwiches from village fairs, the rancid smell of cellars, and the whiskey gone bad; we appreciated the dear "Vampire Circus" by Earthride. They didn't give us anything new, always the usual smelly vintage doom, but that was fine with us. After all, it was fine with them too. But, in retrospect, even the first cry, "Taming Of The Demons," wasn't that bad, as ungraceful as needed to be appreciated.

And then? Five years of silence from the aforementioned VC, before returning in July 2010 with this "Something Wicked," which, as one might expect, does not change one iota of the putridness spawned by the stars and stripes combo. Instead, it can be said that the result changes, because Earthride's third studio work is probably the least convincing of their career.

Leading the band is still Dave Sherman, a seasoned frequenter of the worst doom miasmas. Just remember his presence in the seminal Spirit Caravan by Wino Weinrich (and I take the opportunity to highlight their "Jug Fulla Sun"), a gem to rediscover in a genre that has often seen "lost" fundamental works.

Why couldn't Sherman and company continue in the same vein as before? Why does "Something Wicked" sound like the "wimpy" offspring of the two albums that preceded it? It's hard to give a comprehensive answer, but the signals Earthride sends us are not the most comforting. The platter in question is saved by the skin of its teeth: few ideas, echoes of "already heard," and the insinuating feeling of pieces constructed more out of "inertia" than through a genuinely "felt" songwriting process. Just take the example of the first two tracks: nothing that can even slightly grab the listener's attention. "Make Up Your Mind" and "Destruction Song" change the game: the pace becomes more intense, the riffing more varied, but above all, Sherman's vocal lines are decidedly more fitting. The same goes for the final pair "Supernatural Illusion" and "Force Fed Fear", the latter with a "seventies"-like intro that's not displeasing. In the middle? Not much to report: all well-constructed pieces but remaining in anonymity, without conveying what they should.

Barbaric cousins of Saint Vitus, the Earthride of "Something Wicked" have taken a clear step back. It's not a work that can simply be classified as "bad," but certainly, there are few of those insights and that compositional quality that the two previous works had delivered to us. Mere mannerism? From a genre for "few" and from a band even more niche, one hopes that such mistakes are avoided...

1. "Something Wicked" (5:32)
2. "Hacksaw Eyeball" (5:27)
3. "Make Up Your Mind" (4:55)
4. "Destruction Song" (4:14)
5. "Zodiac" (5:53)
6. "Watch The Children Play" (6:37)
7. "Grip The Wheel" (4:40)
8. "Supernatural Illusion" (6:29)
9. "Force Fed Fear" (8:33)