Athens-based heavy rockers The Vulcan Itch released their second full-length, Rise of the Fallen, this past Friday through The Lab Records, and there’s barely a second to spare in its 10-song/31-minute run. Sure, in the later reaches of side B’s “The Way” and “Chained Freedom” the trio might have a measure or two of flourish as part of their pointed, directed, plan-in-action execution, and closer/longest track “Drowning” dares to top four minutes, but particularly as “Wasted” (video premiering below) opens with such charge, the subsequent “Perfect Life” makes its sub-three minutes a showcase of perpendicular-feeling corners while unveiling the shoutier backing vocals from bassist and recording engineer Nikos “Lizard” Chalkousis that add a singalong kind of feel soon reinforced in the call-and-response payoff of “Addicted to the Dark” — the verse of which is the first time they really take their foot off the gas in terms of tempo, and even there they stay busy en route to the next chorus surge — the emphasis from Chalkousis, guitarist/lead vocalist Spy Das and drummer Erotokritos “Pepper” Kolaitis is on immediacy.

Their Spring 2020 self-titled debut hardly wanted for urgency in cuts like “Don’t Give a Fuck” or “Addiction,” and 2022’s Trapped in a Cage EP hit a similar degree of rush in “Find Yourself,” but on Rise of the Fallen — and yeah, the title is kinda generic; could you do better in Greek? — The Vulcan Itch have made an obvious effort to strip away anything that could be considered ‘excess’ during the writing process, and as such, “Now or Never,” the side B leadoff “Liars and Betrayers” that both hints at the sociopolitical lyric of “Chained Freedom” and has a bit of Don Henley in the lead guitar, and the already-noted one-two punch that starts the record come across as both worked on and an energetic rush. Das‘ vocals lean almost into pop-punk in “Wasted” and “Now or Never,” etc., but while thrust is such an overarching factor, they’re not at all monolithic in sound or arrangement as “Is it Happening” changes up the melody to evoke vibes from Beatles and Queens of the Stone Age at some remove from the palm-muting and crunching tonality of “The Way,” which puts riffy twists at the end of its start-stop verse measures and straightens its course through the hook before cycling through again.

As one might anticipate, it’s “Drowning” that is the real slowdown, but even there the fuzzy low end flow intertwines with airy guitar and the sense of movement isn’t given up in the chugging bridge and nodder chorus. Whether it’s the skronky flourishes of “Is it Happening,” the return of the shouts in “So Cold” and “Chained Freedom,” or the welcoming burst of speed offered in “Wasted,” The Vulcan Itch are professional in both the production and the consideration of their audience in the writing. Their material is accessible even at its most aggressive and able to deliver “Addicted to the Dark,” which is by no means optimistic in its theme, in such a way as to sound organic coming out of “Perfect Life” as part of Rise of the Fallen‘s momentum build rather than departing from that as more of the record’s personality is revealed. The sense of command and direction is palpable, the writing not at all haphazard in its level of depth or detail, and even at their most all-go-now-now-now, they never lose sight of their goals within the individual songs or in the overarching front-to-back journey, however brief that may be.

And while, yeah, that’s about Rise of the Fallen — the entirety of which is streaming near the bottom of this post — being on the shorter side of ‘full-length,’ that The Vulcan Itch didn’t pad it out and thereby risk giving up the efficiency so central to their purposes should be taken as further indication that they know what the hell they’re doing. The clip for “Wasted” premiering below is about as straightforward as you can get — the band, in a place, playing the track — but as with the record the song leads off, there’s no denying the personality brought to it through their collective performance.

Credits and such follow under the embed. Please enjoy:

The Vulcan Itch, “Wasted” video premiere

The Vulcan Itch – “Wasted” from the album “Rise Of The Fallen”
The Lab Records (2024)

Video credits:
Directed by Gerasimos Kolaitis
Cinematography by Alex Haritakis

Album credits:
Music written and performed by The Vulcan Itch
Lyrics by Spy Das
Recorded and mixed by Nikos Chalkousis at Lychnopolis studio
Mastered by Bill Lagos at Entasis studio
Design and illustration by A.D.Visions

Tracklitsing:
1. Wasted (2:12)
2. Perfect Life (2:47)
3. Addicted to the Dark (3:11)
4. Now or Never (2:44)
5. Is it Happening (3:18)
6. Liars and Betrayers (2:28)
7. The Way (3:37)
8. So Cold (3:23)
9. Chained Freedom (3:32)
10. Drowning (4:14)

Formed in 2018, The Vulcan Itch have released one self-titled album and one EP titled “Trapped In A Cage” which were both met with great critical acclaim and allowed the band to play numerous throughout Greece.

The Vulcan Itch are:
Vocals and guitars : Spy Das
Bass and backing vocals : Nikos “Lizard” Chalkousis
Drums : Erotokritos “Pepper” Kolaitis

The Vulcan Itch, Rise of the Fallen (2024)

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The Lab Records website

Is it too early to start reissuing albums like Blind Dog‘s The Last Adventures of Captain Dog? I don’t think so, and here’s why. First of all, it’s been over 20 years since the Swedish band’s debut was issued through People Like You Records, and it is long-since out of print. That’s an important start. Second, it’s getting a 2LP treatment, colored vinyl, full remaster, etc., overseeen by The Lab Records, and what a reissue like this does is essentially the same thing all those reissues a few years back of heavy ’70s records did — it introduces a new generation of listeners to the work and the bevvy of “lost classics” from those who came before.

Blind Dog‘s The Last Adventures of Captain Dog has been on my list to close out a week for a long-ass time and I haven’t gotten there yet, but it’s a badass album and emblematic of the post-Kyuss era of European heavy from whence it came. Consider these guys made their debut with this album in 1999; a year ahead of when Lowrider put out Ode to Io and Dozer put out In the Tail of a Comet. That context matters, and if the reissue can inform listeners of that context, then no, it couldn’t ever be too early.

The PR wire has the info and preorder link, and there’s a remastered track streaming too:

Blind Dog – The Last Adventures of Captain Dog

In 1995, Tobias Nilsson and Joakim Thell formed the Swedish Heavy-Rock band Blind Dog.

Although they have not been active for several years, BLIND DOG remained in rock history when, at the end of the last century (in 1999 to be exact), they released the album “The Last Adventures Of Captain Dog”, one of the best European stoner/ rock albums, which is considered a classic one by the underground rock community!

21 years after its first release, The Lab Records is re-releasing this historical album on a double vinyl.

Newly remastered especially for vinyl, at the Sweetspot studio (Halmstad/ Sweden) by Staffan Karsson, , but also with a special new cover, edited by Nikos Stylidis (Labyrinth of Thoughts), The Lab Records gives the opportunity to those who are still looking for this masterpiece, to acquire it in a special double colored vinyl limited edition.

Release date 26 October 2020

Preorder: https://www.thelabtshirtathens.com/product/blind-dog/

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Blind Dog, “Beyond My Reach” (Remastered)

[Click play above to see the premiere of Gomer Pyle’s ‘Laeviculus’ from their new album, Before I Die I…, out Feb. 28 on The Lab and Three Chords Records.]

A new full-length from Dutch-native heavy rockers Gomer Pyle isn’t something that simply happens every year or every other year. Or every five. Or 10. To wit, Before I Die I… is the third Gomer Pyle album, arriving as a 2LP through The Lab Records and Three Chords Records, and it follows behind their 1999 debut, Eurohappy, and its 2008 follow-up, Idiots Savants. While it’s true they’ve had a couple EPs out along the way, the latest of them being 2016’s three-song GP — which boasted “Side Kings,” also featured here as the longest track at 11:51 — three records over the course of 21 years, a one-per-seven-years average is still not a rate one would call prolific. One could spend months waxing poetic about the different world that 2020 presents as opposed to 2008, but the occasion bringing the band — with the listed membership of guitarist/vocalist Mark Brouwer, guitarist Mark van Loon, keyboardist Danny Gras (who also recorded), bassist Danny Huijgens and drummer Kees Haverkamp — together for Before I Die I… is more personal, and the clue is in the name. Like Astrosoniq‘s 2018 offering, Big Ideas Dare Imagination (review here), the title Before I Die I… is an extrapolation from Bidi, the first name of former manager Bidi van Drongelen, who passed away in June 2017. So that covers why.

As to how long some of these songs have been kicking around, the easiest guess considering the prior appearance of “Side Kings” is a mix of newer and older ideas, and Gomer Pyle‘s sound works much the same way, be it the progressive grunge of the penultimate “Your Demon,” which taps Alice in Chains-style harmonies and darkened vibes before resolving in a sudden thrust of harder-hitting noisy jaggedness, or the fluidity across 10-minute opener  “Remember the Days,” which gradually makes its way in over the first two-plus minutes and continues to unfold patiently despite an underlying rhythmic tension and a chorus of the type that one ends up hoping will be stuck in the head when it’s over, with just a current of pop-style wistfulness in the vocals that finds its payoff in the finale “Cyclus,” amid an instrumental build that the band gracefully let go into the ether after just four minutes of repeated lyrical structures and harmonizing. Across the 62 minutes and nine songs of Before I Die I…‘s span — and it is a span — the group make a case for themselves as being among the great lost generation of pre-social media underground heavy rock, but as with their countrymen in Astrosoniq, that “heavy rock” in their sound is really just a launch point for broader exploration.

Whether it’s “The Buzzer” bringing its hook after “Remember the Days” or the winding, swinging and brash “Scum Trade” or the insistent push of “Nicky McGee,” which follows — that one-two punch arriving, by the way, on the other end of the gorgeous unfurling of “Side Kings,” which is enough of a highlight that one hopes the 2LP positions it as its own side, simply because it deserves to stand alone — Gomer Pyle triumph through the varied currents of their songwriting, tying together sonic diversity through performance and distinctive tone and melody.

That’s not new math by any means, and while one wouldn’t accuse them of being revolutionary — for one thing, the word implies an urgency that despite some of their speedier grooves is undercut by the years between their releases — neither are Gomer Pyle anything resembling derivative in style. Rather, they present enough changes and shifts across Before I Die I… that one never quite knows where the next song is going to go, and that lack of predictability only makes finding out all the more thrilling as “Nicky McGee” rough-and-tumbles its way into the languid eight-minute stretch of “We Are One,” where the sweet and psychedelic guitar melody signals the emotional resonance at its core throughout the keyboard-laced linear build to come, meeting with a due payoff.

The subsequent “Laeviculus” is charged with distilling the sort of fluidity brought by “We Are One” and perhaps marrying it to some of the more straightforward impulses presented throughout Before I Die I…, but it does this across a six-minute run that still wants nothing for reach or memorability, thanks to a standout guitar solo in its second half, a particularly strong vocal, and a sense of nuance that extends to the timing of the snare hits around the five-minute mark. As it surges late and makes its sudden departure, it’s up to “Your Demon” to continue the momentum, which it does with a classic heavy rock swaggering groove, albeit one dressed in grunge melody and a quirky intertwining of guitar lines in the verse, perhaps hinting at some of the more open toying with structure that follows, but if there’s resolution to be had, it comes not only in the finality of the last thuds in “Your Demon” itself, but in the opening piano lines of “Cyclus,” which is, again, gorgeous and rife with class and sincerity without pretense, keeping a current of experimentalism in low-end electronic pulses underneath the emergent build, but finding its footing in the dramatic and sing-along ready vocals, though they’re there for a surprisingly short time.

Aren’t we all.

I did not know Bidi van Drongelen, and seeing the impact his loss had on the community of which he was a part has only made that more regrettable, but grief is universal and touches everyone at one point or another to some measure. The manner in which Gomer Pyle channel that into the scope of Before I Die I… is the type of homage not simply everyone could pay, channeling not just the sadness of losing someone who matters to you, but representing and celebrating the beautiful, complex wholeness of a life worth missing. Even separated from this context, its emotional crux is striking and powerful, and the multifaceted nature of the band’s approach stands up to whatever angle or read one might want to put to it in craft, performance and presentation.

Gomer Pyle on Facebook

Gomer Pyle on Instagram

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The Lab Records website

The Lab Records on Instagram

Three Chords Records on Facebook

Three Chords Records on Instagram

Issued at what might be considered the tail end of the CD era in 2008, Idiots Savants was the second album from Netherlands-based heavy rockers Gomer Pyle. They’ve yet to put out a third. And at 57 minutes, it’s long by today’s standards, but what a record to get lost in. From the motorik launch to the psychedelic immersion that takes hold later, the progressive heavy rock and grunge that arrives late in brooding fashion and the character and grace of their craft on the whole, it’s the kind of long-player that might have someone antsy for a proper follow-up even 11 years later.

Or 12 years later, as it were, since the band’s third full-length will reportedly be released in 2020. It’s been in the works for a while, so here’s hoping that comes together. A Nov. 29 reissue for Idiots Savants is welcome news for the interim though, and The Lab and Threechords Records seem intent on giving it some long overdue due, so right on. Still going to hold out hope for a new-stuff materialization of some sort — to be fair, they did put out an EP in 2016 — next year. Doesn’t even require actual physical effort to figuratively cross the fingers, so there you go.

Reissue info follows, courtesy of the PR wire:

The Lab Records and Threechords Records, proudly present: GOMER PYLE – IDIOTS SAVANTS 2019 reissue

The Lab Records in collaboration with Threechords Records proudly present Gomer Pyle’s “Idiots Savants”, originally released in 2008. This masterpiece will be released on November 29, 2019 in limited edition of 300 copies double orange vinyl with gatefold sleeve.

Release date 29/11/19

Gomer Pyle is a Psychedelic Stoner/ Grunge Rock band from South Netherlands.

Gomer Pyle is an unconventional band with a broad musical range and musical interest.

Each song is a genre on its own. It is all about the unconventional creative process. The autonomous journey where goals or not to please or fulfill (commercial) expectations, but to give way to creativity and the art of music and related arts. Through the years Gomer Pyle has gathered a great accumulation of fellow-thinkers and musical friends.

The band was formed in 1994 when the grunge scene came to a full. One year later they released their first EP “Honeybunny”. In 1999, the Eurohappy CD was released, and some time later the EP “Angelseagirl”. But after some bigger gigs the band went into a long hibernation. In 2006 Gomer Pyle introduced drummer Sander Evers and started a new musical era.

In 2007 the EP “GP” (limited promo pack edition) was released. In 2008 they released their masterpiece “Idiots Savants”. Until today referred to as a ‘stoner icon’ by many. Idiots Savants is a great mix of psychedelic jams and hard-straight stoner rock.

In 2011 the band fell apart due to colliding personalities and individual issues. After all those years it seemed Gomer Pyle was done for.

But after a long period of musical vacuum, the urge to put life back in to the band rose strong. Mark Brouwer and Mark van Loon, historically the main composers of Gomer Pyle, hooked up with Kees Haverkamp (drums) and found a great new bass player in Danny Huijgens. In this setting creativity found its way and set the band back on track like never before.

In 2016 they released an EP, did some great gigs in the Netherlands and Europe and after that started writing songs for a new and upcoming album.

In 2019 the band signed with The Lab Records (GR) and Threechords Records (BG). On late November, the two labels will reissue “Idiots Savants“ in 300 double orange vinyl with gatefold sleeve, and in 2020 – their upcoming new album “Before I Die I”.

Gomer Pyle is:
Mark Brouwer: Guitar, vocals
Mark van Loon: Guitar
Danny Gras: Keys
Danny Huijgens: Bass
Kees Haverkamp: Drums

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Gomer Pyle, Idiots Savants (2010)

Later this month, Athenian heavy rockers Godsleep will embark on a round of tour dates that will find them not only in their native Greece, but also Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Poland, Germany, Switzterland  and Croatia. Eight countries. The tour takes place over the course of most of November as it covers this swath of the continent, and it finds the four-piece out supporting their late-2018 sophomore outing, Coming of Age (review here), which came out last November through The Lab Records and Threechords Records as the follow-up to 2015’s Thousand Sons of Sleep (review here). The second LP marked the arrival of vocalist Amie Makris to the lineup, which gave the songs a refreshed feel and a due amount of soulfulness to go along with their fuzzy push in tracks like “Unlearn” and the dynamic shifts of “Karma is a Kid.”

Touring a year after the release, well, it’s probably not ideal, but you work with what you’ve got and no doubt Godsleep will make the run worth the trip one way or the other. Dates follow, as well as the Coming of Age stream, should you want to get reacquainted:

GODSLEEP – EUROPEAN TOUR 2019

This fall we are on a mission.

Follow us on this trip along the roads of Europe and let’s find out how deep the rabbit hole goes.

Long live rock ‘n’ roll!

See you down the hall…

30.10 IOANNINA (GR), CASTILLO
31.10 SOFIA (BG), MIXTAPE
01.11 BUCHAREST (RO), EXPIRAT
02.11 CLUJ (RO), FLYING CIRCUS
03.11 TIMISOARA (RO), CAPCANA
05.11 BUDAPEST (HU), ROBOT
06.11 LODZ (PL), MAGNETOFON
07.11 KATOWICE (PL), FAUST
08.11 TORUN (PL), DWA SWIATY
09.11 BERLIN (DE), HEADZ UP FEST
10.11 HAMBURG (DE), MS STUBNITZ
12.11 TRIER (DE), LUCKY’S LUKE
13.11 FRANKFURT (DE), DREIKÖNIGSKELLER FFM
14.11 MANNHEIM (DE), JUGENDHAUS SCHÖNAU
15.11 POTSDAM (DE), ARCHIV
16.11 LEUVEN (BE), JH SOJO
19.11 WEIMAR (DE), C.KELLER
21.11 LUCERNE (CH), BRUCH BROTHER’S
22.11 RADEBEUL (DE), BARNYARD
23.11 SALZBURG (AT), DOME OF ROCK FESTIVAL
24.11 ZAGREB (HR), KSET
27.11 THESSALONIKI (GR), ROVER

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Godsleep, Coming of Age (2018)

I always feel compelled whenever I write about these guys — and it’s been a couple times now — to say that I don’t think they really hunt buffalo. Not the least because they’re from Vancouver and I don’t think there are any buffalo in Vancouver, as many as there are anywhere. Nonetheless, even as the B.C. trio We Hunt Buffalo continue to support 2018’s Head Smashed In (review here) as they did earlier this year for a trip abroad that included a stop at Desertfest London, the Fuzzorama Records (Sweden) signees continue to make international headway, hooking up with Greek imprint The Lab Records for a vinyl edition of their long-sold-out early-2012 self-titled debut. The platter, which includes a take on King Crimson‘s “21st Century Schizoid Man,” will be pressed up in an edition of 300 copies and released to the public on Sept. 20, but of course since the record’s been out for seven years, it’s streaming now. You can hear it courtesy of We Hunt Buffalo‘s Bandcamp at the bottom of this post.

The PR wire brings word of the reissue:

WE HUNT BUFFALO – We Hunt Buffalo ( LAB040 )

Canadian fuzz rockers We Hunt Buffalo to reprint self titled debut on white vinyl (limited edition of 300) with Greece’s The Lab Records.

The 2011 LP has been out of print for some time now and as demand grows for vinyl copies of the album, the band is thrilled to be teaming up with The Lab Records.

“I think it’s so cool how a collaboration like this can happen” says Ryan Forsythe (Vocals/Guitar). “Here we have a band and record label on separate sides of the world coming together to release this record. We really like what The Lab Records is doing and are stoked to be part of the roster.”

Since the self titled LP, We Hunt Buffalo have gone on to release two additional full lengths and an EP. They’ve spent much time touring Europe, supporting Monolord & Truckfighters. Their first headlining Euro tour was a success in spring 2019 so expect to see them back soon (with hopefully, appearances in Greece! ).

Release date 20/09/2019.

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We Hunt Buffalo, We Hunt Buffalo (2012)

Call a record Coming of Age and you’re setting yourself up for an expectation of maturity. Godsleep, who released their debut, Thousand Sons of Sleep (review here), in 2015, do indeed solidify elements of their approach that very much worked in their favor the first time around on this The Lab Records/Threechords Records follow-up. Tracks like “Unlearn” and “N.O.U” desert-cruise with the best of ’em, and with returning producer George Leodis (also 1000mods), there’s a consistency between the two records in terms of the quality and depth of their fuzz and general tonal weight. However, while there’s some holdover on this level and in terms of the overarching quality of songwriting, the band’s ability to offset push-forward groove with more patient stretches, a new vocalist is inherently going to do much to change the character of any release. Godsleep are Coming of Age with Amie Makris fronting the band with guitarist Johnny Tsoumas, bassist Fedonas Ktenas and drummer Dennis Leventos, and the change is significant from the outward dudeliness of Kostas, with Makris — who also contributed the striking cover photography for Coming of Age — taking an approach that’s both more melodic and still laced with attitude and boozy fervor.

Her throaty delivery makes an immediately welcome arrival in the first verse of opener “Ex-Nowhere Man,” with backing lines layered in for emphasis atop pointedly desert-hued riffing. The tones of Tsoumas and Ktenas remain a great strength for the band, and Leventos does well both to complement the vocals and drive a progression like that culminating the opener to and through a marked apex. Have Godsleep come of age? In many ways, yes. They obviously learned from the first album who they want to be as a group and have a better idea of the kinds of songs they want to write. At the same time, bringing in Makris, they’ve also shifted the dynamic in a way that makes this eight-song/49-minute outing something like a second debut, beginning a new exploration of character and impression. The results across the LP are exciting and energized in the way of first records while also benefiting from the returning trio’s past experience recording four years ago. Best of both worlds.

The songs bear that out. “Unlearn” and “N.O.U.” follow “Ex-Nowhere Man” in succession, building a momentum that runs through the rest of the material while also prefacing the expansion of style that begins with the funky wah at the start of “Celestial.” Roll is still a factor and it will remain one, but a subtle shift begins with “Celestial” that ties the first and second halves of Coming of Age together, as Godsleep wind their way through the first half of the song and into the burst of pace that happens in the second. It’s not a radical change of character so much as a beginning point that serves to transition into what the four-piece are doing with the back end of the tracklist. And it’s also worth noting the fluidity with which their shifts play out. Whether it’s a turn from one part to another or a kick in tempo or a slowdown, Godsleep never lose sight of the underlying groove that is carrying them and their audience along the album’s steady but varied course. 49 minutes is by no means short for an LP, but neither is it unmanageable, and Godsleep hold firm to what works while pushing themselves to reach beyond what they’ve done before. There are more of them, but the songs on Coming of Age are by and large shorter than those on Thousand Sons of Sleep — none hit nine minutes, for example, though closer “Ded Space” comes close — and feel tighter in their composition.

Even so, an open atmosphere pervades “Puku Dom,” which by all accounts is an interlude, about 90 seconds of subdued fuzz guitar leading the way into “Basic (The Fundamentals of Craving),” which tops seven minutes and begins with Makris‘ standout lines, “Let’s build a house ‘cause time is passing/You are mistaken for the feeling remains,” and runs through a flowing course that builds in energy as it goes, both linear and based on chorus repetition, breaking at around the five-minute mark to more progressive fuzzery ahead of the crescendo that finishes. “Basic (The Fundamentals of Craving)” on its own is demonstrable proof of the maturity happening across Coming of Age, and especially with “Puku Dom” providing listeners with a moment to breathe ahead of its arrival, it seems all the more like the band set it up for maximum impact; a self-awareness that is no less important when it comes to engaging listeners.

“Karma is a Kid” begins at a mellow sway with Makris‘ voice malleable to the situation before the full thickness of the central riff kicks in. It would seem to be the job of the penultimate track to tie the two sides of the LP together, and “Karma is a Kid” does that somewhat with a speedier thrust, but there’s also a change in structure as well, as Leventos, Ktenas and Tsoumas take over instrumentally after that initial arrival of the riff and the rest of the song plays out without vocals. Like the rest of what surrounds, it offers something new while remaining familiar in the context of the record as a whole, and while one doubts Godsleep sat down and masterminded exactly that impression, in putting together the tracklist, they obviously had a sense of what they wanted Coming of Age to do and when, and that’s crucial. They follow a plotted course through the rest of “Karma is a Kid” and crash out to a fading rumble and the start of “Ded Space,” which unfolds with a patient build of tension in the guitar and drums that moves through the early verses en route to an interplay of spoken and sung lyrics in the midsection.

There’s a quiet break in the second half, but Godsleep aren’t going to let the opportunity for a bigger finish pass them by, and they make no attempt to mask their intention all through “Ded Space” as it heads toward its finale. Nor should they — it’s a payoff well earned, both within “Ded Space” itself and across the entirety of Coming of Age as a whole. The closer’s lyrics seem to move from a personal narrative to take on a more pointed social commentary, perhaps addressing Greece’s political and economic turmoil through metaphor and a kind of big-picture perspective. That’s fair enough ground for Godsleep to tread, but like much of what precedes, it piques interest in terms of where they might go from here. That goes back to the idea of Coming of Age as a reset, or a second debut with the arrival of Makris as a distinguishing moment between their sophomore long-player and its predecessor. However one wants to think of it, though, and however they might progress, the high level of craft throughout Coming of Age indeed speaks to the burgeoning maturity of the band, and their consciousness of what they’re doing only heightens the appreciation thereof. I know I already used the word, but I’ll say it again: it’s an exciting listen.

Godsleep, Coming of Age (2018)

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Godsleep on Bandcamp

The Lab Records website

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Among desert rock “outsiders” — that is, those not actually living in the Californian desert from which the genre takes its name — Greek four-piece 1000mods have to be somewhere near the top in terms of accurately conveying the swing, the tonal weight and the focus on vibe that typify the style. Their 2011 full-length debut, Super Van Vacation (review here), announced their arrival as professionals in terms of their grip on the aesthetic, having refined the approach to that point over two EPs — 2006’s Blank Reality and 2009’s Liquid Sleep (review here) — as well as a 2010 split tape with similarly-intentioned German outfit Wight, and the follow-up long-player, Vultures, which also comes after late 2012’s Valley of Sand EP (discussed here), they continue to proffer classic stoner rock riffing. You could take the eight-track/39-minute The Lab Records outing as further evidence that fuzz knows no geographic boundaries, or you can simply approach Vultures as a killer heavy rock record. The latter makes for a more satisfying listening experience, I’ll admit, and for those who approach songs like “She” and “Horses’ Green” with the expectation of their traditionalist spirit, 1000mods will answer back with high-grade rolling grooves that cut to the same root influences Lowrider once embroiled themselves in to craft Ode to Io. One hears more than a little Kyuss throughout, but 1000mods make the sound their own both through the energetic charge of their swing and the memorable hooks around which their songs are based, pieces like “Big Beautiful” and “Modesty” running at full-speed while “Low” and the closing “Reverb of the New World” have a more spacious take.

They skirt the line here and there, particularly on the finale, the title of which derives from a Carl Sagan sample that also appears in the song, but 1000mods never quite tip over into heavy psychedelic jamming, holding instead to the structures around which their songs are based and keeping a sense of movement even in their most languid stretches. If they’re exploring, they’re exploring the impact of the riffs, rather than the riffs themselves. That’s not to say they never have an open feel — even before “Low” starts its laid back push, “She” caps off with an instrumental build that’s as wide a berth as anyone could ask — but there’s always a conscious purpose at work, and as the vibe is so loose of the album overall, it’s doubly impressive, the four-piece of guitarists Gianni and George, bassist/vocalist Dani and drummer Labros never lacking for direction even when they want to and succeed in sounding lost. Opener “Claws” probably could’ve closed Vultures just as easily as it leads off, but the in medias res feel of the guitar line that starts it makes the momentum all the more immediate, and with the speedier boogie of “Big Beautiful” — a lyrical reference to Queen‘s “Fat Bottomed Girls” in the line, “Big bottom woman, you can make a big boy out of me,” is a nice touch — following, 1000mods are almost into the thick of Vultures before the listener knows it, the Sky Valley-style opening of “She” giving way to one of the album’s biggest riffs, Dani‘s voice echoing and gruff over top. Groove is paramount on “She” as throughout, but the riffs, the crash, the groove all comes in service to the song, and even as “She” enters its reaches in guitar solo tradeoffs to make for as big a finish as possible — the ending of “Claws” seemed to come in movements, “She” is more linear — 1000mods waste nothing in conveying the intended atmosphere.

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