Friday 28 July 2023

Melt - Replica Of Man (Album Review)

Release Date: July 07th 2023. Record Label: Self Released. Formats: DD

Replica Of Man: Tracklisting

1.Replica of Man 04:47

2.Sight To See 04:20

3.Problem Child 05:42

4.Diviner 03:40

5.Skeleton Girl 04:30

6.Swamp Water 04:54

7.Shame 03:50

8.Sword or the Scepter 04:33

9.Hive Mind 09:13


Review:


Replica Of Man is the second full length album from Fuzz/Doom/Stoner Metallers Melt and they hide a more dangerous style of music within this album. Taking the classic Hard Rock Swagger of Led Zepp and MC5 whilst matching this with the Proto Doom Sounds of bands such as Black Sabbath and Saint Vitus. Melt add a modern day “outlaw” attitude that conveys the Psych Stoner Rock scene from bands such as KYUSS, Monster Magnet and FU MANCHU.


However, Melt don’t sound like those legendary bands either which maybe difficult to understand at first without hearing Replica of Man in full. The album takes many creative side steps by allowing Melt to dictate their own melodic, aggressive and catchy rhythms where the music grows into a harsher style of Punk Rock or Street Doom on tracks such as Replica Of Man, Sight To See and Problem Child.


Melt create and play heavy amounts of stylish sounding Fuzz, Psych Rock, Proto-Doom and Stoner based madness. LSD and hallucinogenic inspired sound effects, lyrics and vocals are just the icing of the cake for Melt where the band go slightly Demonic Rock or Occult Rock based on the listeners Doom Rock perspective.


There’s a few knowing nods and subtle hints of Social Commentary within Melt’s lyrics and it’s quite refreshing to hear but the album is mostly a damn good time in the darker depths of Classic Hard Rock where Melt have no qualms by mixing different genres together for a different style of Stoner Rock. 


Replica Of Man is not the most conventional or straightforward of albums you'll listen to and it has a loose creative narrative which allows Melt to rewrite the rulebook of Doom/Stoner Rock conventions which fully come into play on tracks such as: Diviner, Skeleton Girl, Swamp Water and Hive Mind.


There is a lot to take in with Replica Of Man as they don’t focus within one area of music but a multitude of different themes and genres where melody and composition is their main weapon of choice with their spellbinding arsenal of freaky HEAVY GROOVES.


Replica Of Man has fabulous production values that allows this album to be super freaky and having a euphoric style of 1970’s Hard Rock attitude whilst having the power to play something aggressively modern at the same time.


Melt have delivered the goods with this release and I’m hoping the band will build up more momentum and attention within the Doom/Stoner Rock scene in the near future.


Words by Steve Howe


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