Review Summary: A refreshing hard rock album which is a welcome black sheep among other modern releases.
“I,I can’t sleep at night, cause that’s the only time when I feel truly free.
And I, I just wanna drive my car, don’t know where I’m going but at least I ain’t standing still.”-Dig That Hole
Lyrics like this one aren’t common in music this day and age. When most popular metal bands enjoy making cookie cutter breakdown filled agro fests about break ups and other personal experiences of 15 year old outcasts, Monster Magnet, for a lack of a better phrase, are keeping it real and of course keeping it heavy. Yep, this is just a straight up heavy metal/hard rock album, containing sledge hammer doom riffs, killer bass, pounding drums, and the cynical lyrics we all love from Dave Wyndorf. Of course this is not Monster Magnet of old, so don’t expect sludgy stoner Dopes to Infinity songs. What you can expect is some hard and heavy, balls out rock ‘n roll to speed, run, and head bang to.
The album opens up with Hallucination Bomb, easily seen as a throw back to their sludgier days. This song is as slow as an elephant and easily as heavy, featuring a nice bass intro and an escalated, loud, sloth like chorus. It does speed up in the bridge but over all slow and heavy wins the race with this one. Did I mention that this song is slow and considerably heavy? Only problem in my opinion is it’s a tad long at 5 minutes 30 seconds and not the most diverse sounding song. The third song definitely makes up for Hallucination Bomb’s misstep. Coming in at the same time as its predecessor, Dig that hole is a masterpiece and by far the best song on the album. It starts off with an atmospheric bass line, then David comes in with some of the best lyrics off the album, which I interpreted as a message to different types of unlikable people, the drifter, the attention whore, the gangsta wanbee, and so on. “Dig that hole, baby.” Once again, this is a brilliant song, with spot on lyrics and one of the best choruses of 2010.
Later on in the album, we are once again treated to a slab of great hard rock songs back to back in the form of 100 Million Miles and Perish in Fire. 100 Million Miles is the more reserved of the two and starts out with a slow bass line before a punk like drum beat comes in. The chorus is elevated and loud and like dig that hole would go great as an arena rocker. Perish in Fire is a step up in everything from 100 million miles. Instead of coming in with bass this song, starts of with some fast, almost tribal drumming and then it takes off with a awesome bouncy guitar riff which is somewhat bluesy in nature. Then comes the chorus which is a mad jumble of fast drums, pounding guitar, and elevated vocals, probably one the faster songs on the album and definitely one of the best.
If you are a listener who wants something a little laid back from their music or if your just tired of the hard rock assault this next song is for you. Yep, track 9 is the somber, ballad of the album. Time Machine is just a vocal, guitar, and bass track and is as catchy as it is gloomy. This is another one of the standout tracks and is definitely a must listen just to hear monster magnet try something new, and ace it.
Sadly among all these stellar songs there are some sub-par cuts, when the Planes Fall from the Sky being the biggest culprit. This track, somewhat reminiscent of older Monster Magnet, just never really takes off the ground and I guess just kind of crashes (no pun intended). Just to slow and monotonous for my tastes. The other sub-par cut would have to be Ghost Story. While it’s not a bad song by any means, it just sounds like they are trying to recreate the success of Time Machine, so in the regard it never really finds its own identity.
Over all this album is superb and I recommend it to any Monster Magnets/stoner rock fans or just music fans who want some really catchy tunes that comes with an instant adrenaline rush.
rating:8/10
Recommended tracks:
Dig that Hole
Gods and Punks
Perish in Fire
Time Machine
All Outta Nothin
