Wednesday 17 August 2016

Lacertilia - We're Already Inside Your Mind (Album Review)


Release date: July 29th 2016. Label: Red Sun Sounds. Format: CD/DD

We're Already Inside Your Mind – Tracklisting

1.Inside Your Mind Part 1 01:22
2.The Wired And The Weird 07:13
3.Tangled Up 04:28
4.Never See The Sun 04:08
5.Ride With Us 06:07
6.EARTH 07:01
7.Journey To Agartha 03:16
8.Fire Up The Engine Of God 03:03
9.Round And Round 08:00
10.Inside Your Mind Part 2 02:17

Band Members:

Fry - Vocals
Tom - Bass
Carl - Drums
Mike - Guitar
Lucas - Guitar

Review:

OK. This time I wanna be honest with you guys. I never ever heard about Lacertilia since last week, when Steve asked me if I wanted to review their latest album, We’re Already Inside Your Mind, released by Red Sun Sounds. Well, let me say that I was a real jerk to lose such a stunning band.

Of course, to my (partial) justification I have to say that the South-Wales fivesome of Lacertilia is relatively new to the scene, as they born in 2013/2014 around the time of the break-up of vocalist Matt Fry's former band, The Witches Drum (God save Riffpedia!). Anyhow, they collected an impressive amount of gigs, sharing the stage with bands likes Karma To Burn, Elder, Trippy Wicked, Bloody Hammers, Sir Admiral Cloudesley Shovell, Peter Pan Speedrock, and countless others. Last but not least, noteworthy their participation to the past Hellfest, which is not obvious for an “emergent” band with just an EP behind, but certainly a showcase for their forthcoming release.

But, what about the music? It’s difficult to list all the many influences behind Lacertilia, as their music is influenced by decades of genres mixed all together in a concentrated of pure rock’n’roll. We’re Already Inside Your Mind is not just an album title, is a statement of intent as, just from the first listening this album will put you directly in the head. In the sound of Lacertilia you’ll find heavy psychedelic groove mixed with sludge and the punk of 60/70s, all seasoned by contemporary stoner and doom.

The album unfolds around the central theme of how modern technology, laws and the established order of things cloud people’s mind and their brains in a sort of lethargy, where Lacertilia come as wise elders to help humans to open their eyes and minds to see things as they really are. We’re Already Inside Your Mind starts and ends with two short and trippy instrumental songs remind me Monster Magnet, Inside Your Mind Part I and II, which gently introduce, first, and then accompany towards the end of the journey.

The perfect business card to understand what you will expect from this album is masterfully enclosed in The Wired And The Weird, a groovy melting pot of sonic indulgence where all different influences blend together perfectly. It follows two powerful songs, Tangled Up and Never See The Sun, where the stoner waves mingle with psychedelic/bluesy dead-lifts and punk outbursts. Ride With Us starts slow and hypnotic, with a masterful use of echoes and reverberations and ending with killer riffs sustaining the final mantra of the song, an invitation to follow the elders.

The stoner/blues of Earth introduces the instrumental Journey To Agartha (one of my favourites), a psychedelic track in the vein of Samsara Blues Experiment and Colour Haze. The relative calm and psychedelia offered by the previous track come furiously swept away by Fire Up The Engine Of God, a pure concentrate of rock’n’roll. With Round And Round, Lacertilia turn almost into a psychedelic band fusing the lysergic atmosphere of the seventies with a killer riffage that reminds me Black Sabbath and Orange Goblin.

To be best appreciated, We’re Already Inside Your Mind should be heard more than once as easy and superficial listeners cannot appreciate the real art behind this masterpiece. This album is entertaining, well played and produced, never boring and able to combine the psychedelic sound of 70s with modern tones of stoner and desert sound. I don't know what you think about but, surely, Lacertilia have conquered a new fan.

Words by Bruno Bellisario

Links:

Facebook | BandCamp