The Warlocks
Surgery

THE REVIEW

You know when you're bored with all the music you listen to because at a particular moment nothing satisfies you anymore? It happens to me often, especially these days when I spend half my workday in the car, devouring music in industrial quantities, tormenting the new car-provided CD player that's already half broken. Last Sunday, I woke up early; it had been a long time since I did that, given that at that hour, I usually fall asleep. The day promised rain in torrents; I looked out the window, and on the side facing the sea, I saw the gray-black sky ready to explode, but I didn't let the boredom get to me and went out anyway. I arrived by car at my destination, stopped, and in front of me, the sky was now the same color as the sea. I managed to spot the only fool who would never give up his Sunday run, lit a cigarette, and put on the latest American Analog Set. By the time I finished the cigarette, the CD had already found its place in its case; suddenly, the torrential rain broke out, but luckily it was just a sudden burst, and I found the strength to get out and take a few steps along the seaside avenue.

I arrived at the new music shop and started browsing the window: lo and behold! The new Warlocks album, I remembered I liked the previous one but was not entirely convinced by it, so I went in and grabbed it; I don't know much about them except they're Californian, and there's an impressive beauty on bass, I think. I put it on, and from the first guitar chords, I realized that maybe after so much grayness, a sliver of light could break through; Come Save Us opens the CD and is a whirlpool of acid sounds and heavy drums, the claustrophobic voice seasons everything, and when the second guitar comes in, the load gets heavier, and my ears rejoice! What follows is thrilling: Gypsy Nightmare and Angels In Heaven, Angels In Hell briefly break the heavy tones and bring us back to velvet-electromagnetic sounds, especially the latter with its sweet, cotton candy-like refrain that serves as a time machine to the year 1967. We Need Starpower and Thursday's Radiation represent, in my opinion, the peak of the entire work as they manage to synthesize the perfect interplay between various instruments, especially bass and guitar, which push beyond the least tolerable sound barrier. Also convincing are the Floydian The Tangent and the closing title Suicide Note, concluding an album worth noting, which certainly won't declare the Warlocks as the band of the year, at least for magazines and the press, but for me, will definitely occupy the upper part of the ranking and who knows, maybe even the podium!