Monster Truck
The Brown EP
Self-Released

The Brown EP is Monster Truck’s second four-song output in as many years, and despite the fact that they roll through an EP’s worth of mean, 70s-fried rock in the same amount of time bands from that era devoted to one song, it’s still well worth the two beer it takes to get through it. A product of Steel Town, Canada (that’s Hamilton for you non-Canucks), Monster Truck is all hairy chests ‘neath leather vests and The Brown EP boasts a bad-ass, big-wheeled boogie that’ll blow your mud flaps way back. Nationally speaking, I’d put ‘em somewhere between the laid back roots n’ groove of The Sheepdogs and the million man spark of White Cowbell Oklahoma, but the way “I Am Freedom,” “Love Attack,” “Seven Seas Blues,” and “Righteous Smoke” crank the crotch mojo into the red, ride the organ like it was Gravedigger, and preach about souls on fire make ‘em sound like KISS, Grand Funk Railroad, and Mountain mud wrestling at a biker rally. Best part is, you can get this EP, and their self-titled one, for free right here. Boss, right? You bet, just like the tunes.

Listen to “I Am Freedom” from The Brown EP!

Jeremy Irons & The Ratgang Malibus
Bloom
Transubstans Records

It might be a little tough to get by the name, but once you accept the fact that Jeremy Irons & The Ratgang Malibus isn’t the title of a long lost Hardy Boys mystery novel in which sleuthing teenage brothers Frank and Joe Hardy spoil an international spy ring led by an award-winning British actor and his band of no-good, rich, white skaters from the coast, and that they are indeed a loose n’ groovy psych-rock band from Stockholm, Sweden, then things suddenly become mystically boss. Bloom, their second album and first on label Transubstans after self-releasing their 2007 debut Elefanta, is an incredibly soulful jam that focuses the majority of its attention on delivering its hazy, swirling melodies in a clear and present manner instead of burying them behind layers of fuzz and mud like most acid trippers are apt to do; songs like the organ-fried clock-melters “Skin Deep” and “IAOA” are propelled by an earthy, bluesy force, “Tales of the Future” and “Cosmo Tropic” require some serious hip shakes before that third eye of yours will open, and the Zeppelin-esque “Fernando” might one day replace “Stairway to Heaven” as the last song at Swedish proms. But where JI&TRM really excel is, believe it or not, in their ability to channel the amplified love of Jeff Buckley, as “Elefanta,” “Golden Hours,” and the title track each swell with an unnervingly delicate beauty reminiscent of the late musician’s sound, elevating Bloom beyond a trippy rock n’ roll record into something much more magical. Highly recommended.

Listen to “Golden Hours” from Bloom!

Howl
Full of Hell
Relapse

Yeah, yeah…I know I’m late with this one by a bunch of months, but I figure I better catch up on all the stuff I missed throughout the year before it’s too late. In fact, most of the reviews from this point forward until the end of the year will probably concern albums that have been out for awhile that, for one reason or another, I never got around to attacking when it mattered. Cue Providence, Rhode Island’s Howl, another big, fat pack of flesh-eating rats in Relapse’s verminous army, which means they’ve got the disease n’ doom down pat. Their debut, Full of Hell, is just that, teeming with ambitiously black riffs and emitting a world-eating belch with the heaviest, most foul stench. True, there’s not much musically that separates the nine songs here, but that hardly matters when they take on this kind of sludge metal groove, chugging and rolling like a mean-ass motherfucker with blood on his boots. An impressively boss full-length debut, and bonus points for the epic Ryan Begley cover art.

Listen to “Gods in Broken Men” from Full of Hell!