Solarized
Neanderthal Speedway

The Solarized are a key player in the underground heavy-psych scene made in New Jersey, the homeland of stoner rock that rose to prominence in the second half of the '90s alongside other bands that revitalized the movement such as Atomic Bitchwax, Solace, Halfway To Gone, and with those who initially laid its foundations: the stoner gods Monster Magnet.

"Neanderthal Speedway" is the first album dated 1999, released by Frank Kozik's Man's Ruin, clearly inspired by the acid and psychedelic sounds of Monster Magnet ('Spine Of God', in particular), and manages, despite the derivation of the proposal, to be an exhilarating album and excellently played, which, in my humble opinion, can be considered one of the many (or few, depending on one's point of view) cult albums of '90s labeled heavy psychedelia.

"Neanderthal Speedway" consists of long free-form solos, acid reverbs, psychedelic jams in abundance ("Cloud Kings", "February Sixth") and more classically hard-rock pieces ("Nebula Mask", "Aftermath", "Psyclone Treath") that delight when blasted at full volume while traveling at insane speeds along with your trusty Jeep Cherokee on any deserted and sun-drenched Highway, far from post-modern, post-industrialized civilization, post-whatever-you-want.

Surely some of you, listening to the album, will accuse this band of plagiarism, especially for certain guitar & bass lines, which vaguely (not so vaguely, actually) remind of the creation of David Wyndorf and John McBain (voice and guitar of Magnet, the latter also in Wellwater Conspiracy), this is something I’ve noticed too, despite really loving this CD, but in the end, if you want something new you could all rush to the latest Isis or Mastodon... here we are talking about derivative and raw stoner rock, do you feel rough and rowdy enough this morning???