Release Date: June 23rd 2023. Record Label: Snow Wolf Records. Formats: DD
Snakes & Foxes: Tracklisting
1.The Mountain and The Feather 05:08
2.The Corenne and The Prophecy Fulfilled 03:44
3.The Gambler and The General 03:47
4.The Axe or The Hammer 05:12
Review:
Snakes & Foxes is the new EP from Psych/Stoner Riffsters El Astronauta and is another winning style of Psychedelic Stoner Metal with Droned Out Sludgy Doom based textures that sees the band paying homage to bands such as Sleep,CONAN, Monolord, Slomatics, Black Sabbath and High On Fire. I’ve been following El Astronauta’s creative output over the last year or so as the band have been quite prolific over the last few years with a string of EP’s, singles and one full length album.
El Astronauta have a melodic Post-Doom/Post-Stoner element to their music but one that drifts further into the lo-fi realms of Heavy Sludge Rock with that wicked Space Rock feeling that’s been used for their last few releases
The vocals on Snakes & Foxes are reminiscent of Valiant Thorr with their outlandish and rugged style but with a wicked “storytelling” vibe behind them. The grooves are always engaging and quite progressive thanks to the excellent DIY production values El Astronauta have used for this release.
The four songs that make up Snakes & Foxes are heavy and follow a similar Sludgy WEEDIAN path but with different levels of volume to each other. The sound is always engaging and even adventurous especially on tracks “The Mountain and The Feather” and “The Corenne and The Prophecy Fulfilled”. These songs are full of intense SPACED OUT themes with El Astronauta even finding time to play multi-layered Prog Metal sounds.
Snakes & Foxes production values are quite raw but they allow the EP to sound refreshingly real and you can tell it’s from the Underground Stoner Metal scene.
The final two tracks of “The Gambler and The General” and “The Axe Of The Hammer” doesn’t stray from the creative path of the opening two tracks but the vocals are more Punk based and the music has a more direct approach to them.
El Astronauta have released another superbly entertaining EP which acts as the perfect gateway for the band to gain new fans whilst impressing their already established fanbase.
Excellent and Highly Recommended.
Words by Steve Howe
Links:
