ANOTHER BRILLIANT GERMAN STONER RELEASE
When asked to give a synopsis on Germany’s contribution to
metal most will either talk about the brutal Teutonic thrash scene spearheaded
by Kreator, Destruction, Sodom and Holy Moses or will bring up or the influence
ze Germans had on modern power metal with bands like Running Wild, Blind
Guardian, Helloween or Gamma Ray and some may even bring up the heavy metal
exports Accept and Scorpions. However, not many know that the country in
question here has a budding Doom and Stoner metal scene as well. As we are
talking about stoner here, the German catalogue consists of bands like My
Sleeping Karma, Kadavar, Samsara Blues Experiment, Electric Moon and Rotor.
This brings us to the new stoner band on the block. Going by
the name Stonehenge which is a 4 piece band the band released their debut album
entitled ‘Bunch of Bisons’ early in 2013. German stoner rock is notorious for
its grandiose take on the mentioned genre and has gained quite some popularity
because of it. Continuing in the same vein Stonehenge unleashes this album upon
us. Bunch of Bisons can be described as a conglomeration of heavy fuzzed out
stoner rock taking elements from both modern as well as the swamis of the
genres ala Kyuss and Fu Manchu along with scanty trips into the psychedelia
infused unexplained expanses and bluesy marijuana meanderings in a mirage
inducing desert baked by the hot sun. These are meshed together with a rock out
and live in the moment attitude of classic rock bands and with touches of krautrock
sprinkled throughout all the time backed with the unpredictability and song
writing skills of progressive rock bands. After you wrap your head around that,
drench this in an organ bathed atmosphere and you have what is collectively
known as Stonehenge.
With 7 tracks dragging almost an hour this band do not
intend to make an easy listening album and know exactly what type of audience
they are looking to target. Apart from
the sporadic vocals this is mainly an instrumental band. The band is at times similar
to the fellow country mates Samsara Blues Experiment but instead of the drawn
on hazy jams that enveloped the listener with Stonehenge you feel a proclivity
towards more structured and thought of songs. While the album opener ‘Arctic
Brother’ starts off with a krautrock type intro that lasts over a minute it
doesn’t take for the band to get into its groove with the plodding riffs,
groovy interludes and solos that can range from soaring to mini dabbles. Though
there is the obvious worship at the school of Kyuss and Queens of the Stone
Age, especially on the title track, the band is never a rip off with its
numerous tempo changes that contribute greatly to the atmosphere and the bands
paltry respect for conventional song structures. Even though the band lays
nothing back when it comes to the riffs department the changes in tempo and
riffs are at times subtle which if one pays close attention to detail can
understand how they complement each other. With each track and each passing
minute you understand the band lesser and lesser as the band may at times cover
you with a barrage of new riffs be it groovy or a soft strum and it times
follow the minimalist approach by attempting to create an atmosphere through
repetition and continually surprise you with sharp twists and sudden turns. Whatever
the band seems to throw towards the listener be it a earthy and melodic phase
or an unpredictable tempo change or a dope induced rambling section or even the
fuzzed out heavy leads coupled with the swirling guitar solos you can hear the
gargantuan amount of talent this band has and while you are gripped by the
complex song structures you can sense the bands high level of amusement and frolic.
The way the band has meshed together the unusually high amount of variables and
still come up with a release that surrounds you and flows with such fluidity
for almost 60 minutes is certainly laudatory.
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| Johannes steals the show with his organ work |
It is not unusual for a bands selling point to be the guitar
work or powerful vocals, but here the person who takes the cake easily is
Johannes, the guy behind the keyboards and organs with his ‘I sold my soul to
the devil’ like grandiose performance. His work is what gives the band its
unique sound and thrust the bands to greater levels of originality and
greatness. And with this, Stonehenge has once again proved why Germany is the
hub of stoner music and is constantly putting out bands and albums in an
unimaginable stagnant genre of music. ‘Bunch Of Bisons’ is an extremely
powerful debut in an extremely over stuffed and uncreative genre, and with a
little luck they may gain the much deserved accolades fellow bands like Kadavar
has gotten.
SCORE - 83/100
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