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Rating: What the hell, is southern rock played like this today? But warn me beforehand, please! Where are the flowery solos of the Marshall Tucker Band, the background vocals of the Lynyrd Skynyrd backup singers, the magical and pure solo guitar of Allman? These guys kick ass without using vaseline: "Mississippi King" opens the show with a massive riff Sabbath-style distorted by slide that's outright scary, Eric Oblander's voice is so cavernous it seems to come from Laramie's cemetery. The dance routine is always the same: BOOGIE! But the tons of watts they pour into it... and this drum beats time as if the noon clock from the Wild West had doom embedded in place of the cuckoo! Tiny skeletons of old shamans dance in the dark of the camp, twirling their long manes magically spared from decomposition.
"Spillin' Fire" is a pounding blues with the same guitar loop from start to finish. But then comes "Silver" and it's a direct blow to the nerve centers responsible for head movement, you are forced to headbang even if you have cervical osteoarthritis. Because Oblander's voice is a paean of hoarseness and that damned boogie never stops screwing you, the solo guitar attempts an escape chased by the harmonica and you miss the Harley Davidson to launch on the roads of the American dream.
Wait a minute...this slide that opens "Gods of Demolition" sounds familiar! We are about to enter the territory of traditional southern rock marked by the splashes of piss from too much beer, the duel of solo guitars à la Rossington-Collins on the electric groove is worth the price of the train ticket of the 3:10 to Yuma. Still boogie...boogie and always boogie in the mosh pit that sets guitars on fire in "Shine around" with the drunkard's chorus "... Let me loose and shine arounnnnnd" tangled on the Hammond in the background. Hell, will these hillbillies do a slow piece? Because at this pace, I doubt I'll make it to the end and ...here it is: it's "It Ain't Easy". Do you remember it in David Bowie's version in Ziggy Stardust? Well, forget it, because Oblander growls fiercely over tons of slide that swallow his hoochie coochie woman.
For reinforcement "Hoolerin" is a slurred drunken blues at minimal rotation... damn, the Cramps must have passed through these parts with the whole assortment of bones and shrunken heads stowed in the salesman's briefcase, there's no other explanation. Stoner pieces like "Swallow the word" would make their valuable mark in a remake of "Easy Rider", this song I can't imagine without a chopper speeding down Route 66 towards that fireball setting on the horizon, stretching the shadows of the desert...the best track on the record (ahem... after the other five or six that preceded it and a couple more to follow).
I'm forced to be harsh and give them four stars, but only because they haven't grown their beards like ZZ Top! And what are you waiting for to throw away the razor?
Tracklist and Videos
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