Album Review: Seedy Jeezus, Hell Yeah!
Posted in Reviews on August 24th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
At the very least, they weren’t kidding when they named it Hell Yeah!. This limited vinyl outing from Melbourne, Australia, classic-style heavy psych blues rock trio Seedy Jeezus isn’t quite an album and at seven songs and 35 minutes it’s too long to really be an EP. The band put it together, packaged with red/blue 3D glasses and on-theme artwork, ahead of their Summer 2026 tour in Europe, and it highlights three originals and four covers, including a side B homage to New Zealand heavy ’70s rockers Human Instinct, whose burner jam “Stoned Guitar” is paired with “Midnight Sun,” which closes the release and brings in The Human Instinct‘s Maurice Greer for a guest vocal. Side A, in the meantime, ends with “Pull Down the Shades,” an ’80s punk shove by Chris Knox/Toy Love, also from New Zealand. The whole affair is very Seedy Jeezus in its sense of reverence for where it comes from, and vocalist/guitarist Lex Waterreus, bassist Paul Crick and drummer Mark Sibson are no less alive in the delivery of their own material.
The LP opens with “Riff Song,” and before the track is even really underway, the guitar is in the lead. Setting the tone, on multiple figurative levels. It may be the fate of every such rhythm section in a power trio to be undervalued, and guitar has been the focus in heavy rock and roll since the style was invented, but the work Sibson and Crick do across Hell Yeah! is essential and not to be missed, following the careening course of “Riff Song” and through its sundry twists and reversals and oh-we’re-going-this-way-now-we’re-going-that-ways. They are the warmth of the fires that Waterreus‘ guitar is setting, and true to the title, that becomes the theme of the entire record. It does not inhabit the melancholic emotional spaces of 2025’s Damned to the Depths (review here), nor does it disavow them through contrast. It’s a different kind of outing with a purpose of its own. More barebones in sound and rawer in spirit, it conjures freedom in shred, a letting-loose of craft and an all-in display carried by the chemistry of the band, which is plenty enough to get the job done. That’s laid out and proven by the time the sub-three-minute “Riff Song” is over, and while the subsequent “Warwhores” is longer at 5:30 and a bit of a slowdown, the rousing momentum they build is not in the least squandered in the swing and swagger of the verse or even the midsection crashout.
How they resisted putting a mellotron on the second half of “Warwhores,” we as the audience may never know, but they did, and it’s the guitar covering a lot of that space in the mix, but it’s the momentary comedown that’s most notable, the arrival of acoustic guitar and a milder tempo, but there’s tension too, and even just before they finish, the very last seconds are topped with a sustained note of guitar that feels like it might jolt the song back to life for another go. It has you almost waiting for it, but it’s the title-track instead that picks up, with Sibson leading the way in on a circular pattern soon with Crick before the next round of shred begins.
In “Hell Yeah!,” the intention behind the record is reaffirmed. Waterreus belts out a vocal drawing a direct line to the ’70s rock the band are about to adopt as their own as they cover Cactus‘ (actually Willie Dixon‘s) “Evil,” and if you know that band’s take on that song from 1971’s Restrictions, it’s a throwdown. The kind of song a band plays on stage to establish hot-shit heavy blues dominance; a weapon to be wielded. The pairing with “Hell Yeah!” is seamless. Both are largely dry in terms of vocal effects, giving an organic, captured-live (and maybe they were, I don’t know) feel, and both are taut rhythmically and showy without being overly technical. It’s not every band who can pull off a song like “Evil,” or like “Hell Yeah,” or “Riff Song” and “Warwhores” for that matter, but the underlying point is that’s a big part of who Seedy Jeezus are. They dig in with particular and palpable glee.
“Pull Down the Shades,” as noted, shifts the timeline somewhat. The boogie takes a backseat to shove, amp buzz routed into a rendition of early punk rock that, it has to be mentioned, features zero guitar solos. That in itself is a departure from what surrounds, and that feels like a conscious choice, to let “Pull Down the Shades” clean the slate at the end of side A before the two Human Instinct pieces round out, Seedy Jeezus well in their element for both as the instrumental “Stoned Guitar” from the perpetually-found lost-classic 1970 album of the same name goes all-in, helter-skelter, three solid minutes of guitar noise and pulls before the rest of the band kicks in, true to the original. This isn’t the first time Seedy Jeezus have taken on The Human Instinct either, but the fact that they dedicated a whole vinyl side to the cause speaks to the depth of appreciation, not to mention welcoming Greer to sing on “Midnight Sun.” Again, I’m forced to highlight Crick‘s bass and Sibson‘s drums by the softshoe-ready shuffle they hone as Waterreus‘ leads answer the Greer‘s verse lines. Complemented by “Stoned Guitar” just before, “Midnight Sun” ends Hell Yeah! with a duly celebratory feel and a lack of pretense consistent with what’s come before. They hit it and nail it. The story of it could hardly be simpler.
Given the limited-and-already-sold-out nature of the vinyl, one wouldn’t expect Hell Yeah! to necessarily be indicative of where Seedy Jeezus are headed as a band, but it’s a welcome sidestep just the same, and a refreshing blast of classic heavy rock and roll, both in the originals and the covers. Call it a fan-piece if you want, but even if you’ve never heard Seedy Jeezus before, if you as a listener have some appreciation for either the ’70s influences they’re working under here or the barnburner interpretations modernity has brought to them, they make it a pleasure, not a challenge, to get on board.
