A power trio wearing bell-bottom jeans, citing Witchfinder General and Black Sabbath as their main influences, recycling the (in)famous Blind Dead trilogy for their cover artwork and posting on their Facebook page regular links for free online bikers or Satanic exploitation movies… sounds familiar?
Still, just like Orchid, Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats or Satan’s Satyrs, despite how predictable those Californians’ debut may appear at first, there’s something extra for those willing to dig a bit further.
First of all, while its garagey production echoes Pentagram’s First Daze Here collection, it still has a cutting-edge guitar tone way more aggressive than your average grainy stoner version, as for once we have here a band proud of labelling themselves ‘metal’ even if said definition is rooted in the late 70s.
And the more you immerse yourself in this 12-songs set, the bleaker it gets. By the time you flip sides (as the whole LP analogy seems legit here, don’t you think?) and reach track number eight, Mask Of Satan, all potential marijuana smoke has been erased by the smell of freshly spilled blood.
