Release
date: April 30th 2016. Label: Ozium Records. Format: CD/DD/Vinyl
Revelations
Of The Third Eye – Tracklisting
1.
Intro/Inferno 6:24
2.
Amnesia Haze 3:17
3.
Revelations of the Third Eye 7:23
4.
The Oldest Lie 4:59
5.
Heavy Lies The Crown 7:13
6.
Bad Acid 5:21
7.
Spellbound 8:28
Band
Members:
Vocals
– Simona Mignola
Guitar – Mattias Lundberg
Bass – Victor
Wårdsäter
Drums – Jonathan Wårdsäter
Review:
Ever
imagined what a bastard love child between Truckfighters and Blues
Pills would sound like – ponder no more and welcome the dirty
highway orphan in Bad Acid. This is a rather new band established in
the wake of the untimely demise of brilliant Swedish purveyors of
fuzzy stoner rock Mamont. On Bad Acid’s first real outing they have
managed to pull off the perfect marriage between bluesy 70s inspired
hard rock and 90s Kyuss inspired desert rock. This formula definitely
works for them and is sure to attract many fellow stoner heads
seeking a fix for their cravings.
Revelations
Of The Third Eye is filled to the brink with well-crafted, metal
infused and fuzzy stoner rock with a dash of doom vibe sprinkled on
top. This might be the sound of Alunah taking it to the desert
highway on a wildly addictive drug-influenced ride.
In
opposition to its precursor, Bad Acid is fronted by Simona and with
the obvious possibility of coming of as gender discriminating, which
tends to be hit and miss (no pun intended) with me. But with the
sheer force and talent she possesses, I have no other choice than to
bow in the desert dust in awe of her performance on Revelation Of The
Third Eye. The vocal duties easily deserves comparisons to the
genre’s best and have no trouble competing with Elin (Blues Pills),
Alia (Blood Ceremony), Sophie (Alunah) or Dorthia (Windhand) for that
matter.
However,
what is a great singer without an equally great background to play
against? Not much, I would say, and luckily, the rest of Bad Acid’s
in all aspects matches Simona in creating the perfect musical
playground. Fat, fuzzy, swirling riffs that meander, chuck, churn and
twist on top of a rhythm section with balls the size of Ayers Rock
where the drums are loud and think, whilst distorted bass lines whip
the fuzz fest in full motion. This comes as no surprise when it dawns
upon you that Victor and Jonathan who previously shook the ground in
Mamont handling the bass and guitar respectively.
A
short acoustic ‘Intro’ sets the mood for Revelations Of The Third
Eye and immediately I find myself straying along a desolated desert
highway feeling a storm approaching. After roughly a minute and half
of eerie awaiting, I am suddenly hurled up from the ground when
‘Inferno’ throws me straight into the eye of the storm. As the
song title indicates this is a sublime stoner rock experience where
the fast forward moving rhythms with menacing voices flickering in
and out through the grooves forged by the other three band members.
Just one song in and Bad Acid has already turned the crucible
red-hot.
‘Amnezia
Haze’ sets slowly in motion by a cool sounding bass-line pushing
the song into cruise mode; here is your perfect soundtrack to cross
Death Valley, driving drums, and great melodic guitar riffs. The
catchy as hell chorus that will leave you humming “amnezia haze”
for the remainder of the day. This is one hell of a memorable tune
that needs no more than one or two spins to last long in the memory.
With
the title track, Bad Acid leaves the dusty canyons and desert roads
behind and take off from Earth heading for a more spaced out sound.
‘Revelations Of The Third Eye’ is perhaps the standout track for
me on this album as the band really shines and show off their eminent
musical skills and skillful interplay. A few minutes later the band
flies into orbit and the rest of the song is one long tour-de-force
in how to jam-the-F-out making four individuals appear as one
amalgamated unity.
‘The
Oldest Lie’ brings Bad Acid back from space to serve us another
round of groovy-as-can-be stoner rock. On this song I am reminded of
Jess and the Ancient Ones due to the brilliant vocals. How peculiar
to have this arranged on top of some of the heaviest and fuzziest
desert rock. To me this is like getting the best of both worlds.
On
‘Heavy Lies The Crown’, ‘Bad Acid’ they continue their stoner
rock musical progress as the superb guitar work in the middle of the
track, again show a great ear for melodies the band has. It’s a
pleasure to experience a band who know their own strengths and play
them to their fullest potential.
‘Spellbound’
closes out this brilliant and utterly entertaining debut and guess
what they have saved some of the best riffs for last. Despite being
the longest song and having a fairly long run-time (8:28) for the
genre (as this is neither a pure doom or space rock album), the songs
packs so much nerve, melody and variation that you as listener
completely forget time and space and just flow along, hoping it never
stops.
It
has been quite some time since I last encountered an album with such
a degree of re-play-ability. As soon as the tunes from ‘Spellbound’
fades out, all you want to do, is to just hit play and take another
sonic ride full-on Bad Acid style. Job well done. Now head over to
Ozium Records, who handles this release on both CD and vinyl, and
show some love for this talented band. On with the headphones, press
play, lean back, indulge….
Words
by Niels Fuzz Bartholdy
Revelations
Of The Third Eye will be available to buy on CD/Vinyl via Ozium
Records from April 30th 2016.
Links:
