Release Date: April 01st 2022. Record Label: Ripple Music. Format: CD/DD/Vinyl
Acute Mania - Tracklisting
1.Wolves
2.Dead Meat
3.Ancestors
4.Last Days
5.Frequencies
6.System
7.Papas Special Custard
8.Mono
Members
Reece, Cam, Kip, Sammy, Dean
Review
Acute Mania is the new album from UK Stoner Rockers Steak and sees the band take a more nuanced and mature approach compared to their earlier albums. The album sees the band still maintaining their rugged and passionate Stoner Rock/Metal sound. The band play a more modern Psychedelic approach but with that well known swagger the band are known for.
Opening song Wolves has a dark essence to it especially with the lyrics and dark style of Psychedelic Stoner Rock that’s almost twinged with gloomy Doom Metal atmosphere. Though, the Desert Rock grooves that show Steak haven’t gone completely over to the dark side just yet. The music is quite grounded as well thanks to the Blues Rock score that accompanies the music in the background and still allowing Steak to show their love and admiration for the forefathers of Desert Rock/Stoner Metal such as KYUSS, Fu Manchu and Yawning Man.
Second song Dead Meat is classic Steak through and through with its vibrant style of Classic Hard Rock and unflinching Psychedelic vibes that bring an almost “LOW & SLOW” style of guitars to the album. The vocals are aggressive and have a 90’s classic Grunge appeal. As Steak flirts between modern day Stoner Metal aggression and 90’s Alternative Metal experimentation. The drumming by Dean towards the end of the song is sublime and is perhaps the best part of this track.
Third song Ancestors starts off with a solitary acoustic guitar and a stunning vocal performance yet again as Steak steadily builds the Stoner Rock/Metal flow from the ground up and brings a thunderous classic style of music that feels vintage and vibrantly modern at the same time. The free-flowing KYUSS based grooves are given a distorted edge. The lyrics are quite emotional and hard-hitting which is quite a creative turnaround for the band. Even though they’ve written emotionally charged songs in the past, they have never sounded as real, fresh or grounded as this.
If you’re hear for the music then that’s fine too as Steak brings a fresh sounding perspective for the UK Desert Rock/Stoner Metal scene.
The album continues with the free-flowing trippy Psychedelic grooves on excellent songs such as: Last Days, Frequencies, System and Papas Special Custard.
Acute Mania is quite diverse with the different strands of Psych Rock, Desert Rock and Stoner Metal that Steak employs for this record. The Blues Rock atmospherics is what keeps everything grounded and allows Steak to play a high amount of fresh sounding Stoner Rock guitar grooves that are bursting with true confidence and originality.
Even with this being quite a grounded album in places, Acute Mania could be considered a concept album as the blurb below will explain more.
“With the album's arrival also comes the advent of the limited edition ‘Steak: Mad Lord’ comic book that will be included with the vinyl. Written by Samuel Smith and illustrated by Rhys Wooton, the comic book brings together STEAK‘s long-established post-apocalyptic future and the exaggerated Samurai world of feudal Japan taken from the short film ‘Mad Lord: Samurai of 1000 Deaths’, which soundtrack was entirely recorded by the band.”
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Steak have worked with multitudes of Stoner Rock royalty since their inception and band member Reece Tee is one of the folks behind the legendary Desertfest Festival which was setup back in 2009. Now look at Desertfest now with various festival variations of the world.
Acute Mania will only help solidify their reputation as one of the best bands within the UK Stoner Rock/Metal scene. Expanding their partnership with Ripple Music once again for this release, the album sounds incredible from start to finish.
Don’t be surprised to see Acute Mania showing up on Albums Of The Year all over the place, as this is a wonderfully exciting and adventurous album that ranks as their best release to date.
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to Purple Sage PR for the promo.
Acute Mania will be available to buy on CD/DD/Vinyl Packages via Ripple Music and STEAK from April 1st 2022.
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