Graveyard seem to be a strange pick-up for metal label Nuclear Blast, but there were days before speed and aggression when the psychedelic blues riffs of bands like Led Zeppelin and Blue Cheer were considered heavy metal, so if you want to look at it that way, the foggy longhair tumult of the Gothenburg, Sweden quartet’s retro rock is plenty metal enough. Shaking with raw, analogous boogie-doom and acid-fried magic, Hisingen Blues, the band’s second album, is rarefied fuzzdom, a kind of electric catnip that makes bell-bottomed leaf hounds go bat-shit. Much like its self-titled predecessor, Hisingen Blues baits you into unconscious reminiscing thanks to a sound best received via vinyl’s hypnotizing spin. Although Graveyard find themselves essential players in a growing Euro-led 70s revival with bands like Witchcraft, Ghost, The Devil’s Blood, Dead Man, and Asteroid, they bypass the more flagrant ceremonial/occult vibes of some of those bands (although they’re not shy on the demonic themes) for a more straightforward rock n’ roll approach that might call to mind a candlelit version of latter-day Hellacopters. Songs like “Ain’t Fit to Live Here,” “Hisingen Blues,” “Buying Truth (Tack & Förlåt),” “Ungrateful Are the Dead,” and “RSS” are propelled by pelvic power and sorcerous solos, while songs like “No Good, Mr. Holden,” “Uncomfortably Numb,” “Longing,” and “The Siren” take a dip into murky, mystic waters, and all the while vocalist/guitarist Joakim Nilsson replies in kind with an impressive range that stretches from Plant to Pelander as the situation warrants (sometimes within the same song). I predict this one will gain a hell of a lot of traction before the year’s out, and that’s all right with me, friends, because when the weird inherit the Earth, we’ll have Graveyard to thank.
Check out the video for the title track from Hisingen Blues!
Yes, I’m still discovering music I missed during the year. And I will probably continue to do so well into next year (and the year after that, etc.), and while I realize I’m going to have to begin looking ahead lest I lose my mind, I just couldn’t let 2010 fade away without mentioning a couple of albums that really deserve mentioning. So let’s get “II” it! (That will make sense in a minute.) Then I’m done for the year, I swear.
Stone Axe II
Music Abuse Records
Stone Axe are so good it’s stupid. How two men (in this case Dru Brinkerhoff on vocals and Tony Reed on everything else) excel beyond most any measure at harnessing the sheer muscle and genius of rock n’ roll, I’ll never know. And listening to songs like “We Know It’s Still Rock ‘N’ Roll,” “On With the Show,” and “Those Were the Golden Years,” I have to believe they can raise the dead too, as each one of ‘em are triumphs not heard since AC/DC and Thin Lizzy lost Bon Scott and Phil Lynott, respectively. Classic rock sucks for the most part, but rock that is classic never wavers, and from their debut to II, Stone Axe have flown that golden flag high and proud, boasting a groove n’ roll that not only honours the greats, but makes its own irrevocable hay as well. Expect a DVD, a deluxe reissue of their debut, Stone Axe, and a possible third record next year.
The smooth grooves, the electric cool, the easy beats, the hippie desert flow; it all comes pouring out of the eight songs on Gods & Goddesses like you would expect them to, all laid back and heavy, but goodness gracious, child, this isn’t your same ol’ Brant Bjork. Our main man, the undisputed leader of revolution rock, the ganja guru, is strolling above the clouds now, calling the shots from a beautiful oasis in the sky. The dusty green vibes usually found on his albums have been replaced here with a spatial island soul, and when the needle drops and opener “Dirty Bird” kicks in, you might fail to recognize Bjork’s signature dope tongue at first, but rest assured the bandanna essence is always there. It just sounds — if I dare say — more God-like. Of course, it might be that the new band of bros behind him (featuring bassist Billy Cordell of Yawning Man) have released a new coconuts n’ Cadillac attitude in him, but chances are Bjork just felt like expanding his mind one more time. After all, Bjork is a master at taking us to amazing, far away places with his blown brand of no fuss rock n’ roll. This record, while it might stray from the beaten path, is certainly no exception.
Graveyard
Stone Axe
Brant Bjork