HEAVY DEAVY SKULL LOVER

The first track, 'The Valley of Death' begins with a clean acoustic picking style and a bass heavy fuzz guitar playing a different motif over as Hecksher's vocals drone on. There are no drums or percussion at all and the approach is generally minimalism. The sound is very heavy with the distortion turned up to the max. Towards the end of the track the time signature actually changes dramatically and is almost chaotic. It feels darker with the off kilter sonic guitars which squeal in pain till it ends abruptly. A great track which is the promise of things to come.

'Moving Mountains', the longest track clocking 11 minutes, begins like the previous track but the drums soon kick in and are played by Anchondo or Mustachio quietly as the loud clanging guitars ring out. The vocals are once again full of angst almost like Radiohead in fact. Hecksher wails over a slow meandering somber soundscape. It feels rather depressing in parts. There is a lot of feedback and at one point a droning like you might hear from Sunn O))), though it is far more accessible. The instrumental break is lengthy and slow, but somehow feels relaxing. The band take their time just moving from one chord to the next effortlessly. Fraser's bass is particularly fuzzed out. The track speeds up a bit with 2 strumming guitars in harmony to each other and a straight forward drum pattern. There is nothing fancy in the musicianship but it is played in a psychedelic framework, almost in a free form jazz improv style.

'So Paranoid' is more neo-psychedelia from the band, with an interesting sound of guitars ringing out with harmonics and a whispered vocal style is sung over top. The reverb on the guitars is mesmirising. It is noisy but somehow uplifting, even hypnotically trance like. The Hawkwind influence is evident. There are no pronounced lead breaks but more a shimmering droning chord on one guitar with variations played on another guitar that even sound like a keyboard at times. This is a highlight on the album.

'Zombie Like Lovers' is another psych rock track that pounds along faster than other tracks but the shimmering drone is still present. The laconic vocals reflect the alienation, and oppression of lost love and the longing and searching for meaning in love. The instrumental break is a wall of sound of sonic sadness, melancholia that never lacks punch. I never find it draining due to the innovative method of playing in such a relaxed, laconic style. I guess this is a reflection of the hallucinogenic 70s era that this music is based on ? Timothy Leary's infamous "tune in, turn on, drop out".

'Dreamless Days' is very dreamy in its approach, extremely slow, meandering along at a mind numbing pace. It reminded me of Sigur Ros in a way, though not quite as entrancing. But this track is essentially music to fall asleep to. Nothing wrong with that if you are in the mood but it is not easy to digest when you are not. However, the point is made ? The Warlocks are producing innovative music that makes you sit up and take notice. The feedback and spacey guitar effects work rather well on this track.

Space Rock or Psych Prog in its extreme form, The Warlocks are stamping their authority on the next wave of prog. The album did not feature all the members of the group as in fact every album has had a different lineup due to problems with the members or in fighting, however this stripped down version of the group works well enough. It is a very sad melancholy album with some great tracks but as a whole is mediocre in comparison to other Space Rock out there. It still is worth a listen and I trust the band will improve as they iron out the problems they have had. Kudos to them for lasting this long ? 10 years is admirable for any band these days, let alone Psych Prog.

Having moved in an increasingly commercial direction since their inception only to find themselves without a record label, band leader Bobby Hecksher took radical action. The line up was pared back to a quartet, devoid of the multiple lead guitars which were a feature of previous releases (strangely though the twin drums remain) and a new record label was found. Most significantly though, the search for a hit single was abandoned, with the Warlocks returning to the jam based style of their début album.

The opening "The Valley of Death" is distorted to the point of sounding faulty, but it seems both drummers arrived late for the session, neither being present on the track at all. The light picked acoustic guitar which accompanies a soft vocal gradually disappears in confusion of fuzz and feedback. At around 11 minutes, "Moving Mountains" is the longest track this time around. As with the opening track, the mix sounds decidedly suspect, the drums being too prominent in this monstrous dirge. The song is certainly far removed from the pop rock of "Surgery", but the fuzz and distortion are overplayed. Thankfully, a clean sound finally emerges later in the track, which redevelops as a post rock style builder.

"So Paranoid" leans towards Radiohead a bit (but without the Android!), the chiming lead guitar and understated vocal sitting rather well together. "Slip Beneath" retains the post rock dirge effect, with indecipherable vocals pushed back by melodic lead guitar phrases. I cannot help but feel that even here though, had the mix been cleaner, it would have sounded so much better.

The most noticeable thing about "Zombie Like Lovers" is the ridiculously off-beat rhythm, followed closely by the poor vocal. It is all a bit of a mess really. "Dreamless Days" is probably the most orthodox track on the album, the Radiohead style mood of the song being reasonably atmospheric. Quite what the band were thinking when they decided to reverse the entire "Interlude" to become "Interlude in Reverse" we can only speculate on. This though is an entire track recorded backwards; it must have seemed like a good idea at the time, but the reality is it is dreadful! The album closes with "Death, I Hear You Walking", a loosely structured soft number with a concealed melody.

While we have to admire The Warlocks for their willingness to explore more challenging areas, by and large this album simply does not work. The high energy jams of the early days and the melodic pop of more recent albums are both absent. In their place we have songs which sound like they have not been recorded properly, and which lack anything interesting. Pass this one by.