Unida
The Great Divide

THE REVIEW

I'd like to start by talking about the difficulty in finding this album: in fact, the second LP from Unida never really hit the market due to certain unspecified legal hassles with the record label American Recordings, which froze the album in 2001. Therefore, to get hold of it, you have to wander a bit on the web...

That said, let's move on to the music: Unida offered an honest stoner rock clearly influenced by Kyuss (the singer, John Garcia, and the bassist, Scott Reeder, are the same as the legendary group just mentioned) with classic hard rock influences, which, if it did not change the fate of modern music, at least manages on more than one occasion to give off some excellent vibes.

In this work, there are faster and more dynamic episodes like the opening "Puppet Man", "MFNO" and "Trouble" where the groove and the immediate catchiness of the riffs and vocal lines hit you right away.

The rest of the album travels at more moderate speeds without the quality dropping, except perhaps in some tracks where there's a bit of a filler atmosphere ("Glory Out" and "Slaylina"). The cover of Leaf Hound's "Stray" is undoubtedly effective, where you can appreciate Garcia's singing qualities with pure 70's taste. "Last Day" is the extended track and, if you will, the more psychedelic one of the CD, which however has the flaw of reminding a bit too much of the wonderful "Space Cadet" by the sadly defunct (sigh!) Kyuss.

In general, the album is played with the mastery of those who have always lived (and even created!) this genre; even the unknown (at least to me) guitarist Arthur Seay always manages to deliver an effective solo that can elevate the fortunes of a perhaps not unforgettable song.

It is needless to emphasize Garcia's performance, who remains one of those few singers capable of truly adding something extra to a band (listen to "King" for example).

In the version of the CD I found, there were slightly revised versions of two tracks already present on their first album ("Human Tornado and "Thorn") and, above all, a gem: the very well-interpreted cover of "The Thing That Should Not Be" by Metallica, demonstrating that good music is always current (let's hope the Four Horsemen remember it sooner or later...).

Therefore, I can only recommend discovering this band, which unfortunately and inexplicably fell into oblivion.

Tracklist:

1. Puppet man
2. Stray (Leaf Hound Cover)
3. Summer
4. King
5. Cain
6. Vince Fontaine
7. Hangman's Daughter
8. Glory Out
9. Slaylina
10. MFNO
11. Last day
12. Trouble
13. Human Tornado (New version)
14. Thorn (New Version)
15. Wet Pussycat (New version)
16. The Thing That Should Not Be (Metallica Cover)