Wolfmother
Cosmic Egg

Five years have passed since the release of Wolfmother's debut album, and they return in full force in this glorious 2009, gifting us with a new work composed of twelve original tracks.

During this time, the lineup of the Australian band has changed: the only remaining founding member is guitarist and singer Andrew Stockdale, an eccentric character with original hair and a "Plant-like" voice, who composes all the band's songs.

"Cosmic Egg" (a yoga position, I believe) does not stray too far from its predecessor. The genre presented is the same powerful Hard Rock with various influences from other genres, from Metal ("10,000 Feet"), to Indie ("Violence Of The Sun"), seasoned with a few ballads ("Far Away") and always ready to recall the past and show the band's influences in a terribly explicit way (indeed, we move from Beatles-like references in "The Pilgrim", to Deep Purple rhythms in the title track, heaps of Sabbathian riffs, and shameless references to Led Zeppelin in tracks like "In The Morning"), starting from Stockdale’s already mentioned voice, sometimes really too similar to Plant's, although capable of showing warm and sentimental sides. The songs, all around four minutes long, are simple and created around powerful and impactful riffs, like the single "New Moon Rising", the oriental-flavored successor to "Woman".

In short, while awaiting total stability, Wolfmother does not take risks and creates a very pleasant, powerful, and charged album, overall satisfying, but lacking surprises and not entirely convincing, given their total reliance on the aforementioned bands of the past.

It's a good album, but after not too many listens, it might end up in oblivion.

Influenced.

Rating: 3.5