Review of Invaders – Kemado Records

by John Linden in Album Reviews, New Releases, Reviews, bands to watch

Something strange has been happening in a certain subgenre of metal in the past few years. It started, depending on who you ask, either with the release of Wolfmother’s self-titled album or The Sword’s debut Age of Winters. The subgenre was stoner rock, and the strange thing was it was becoming…hip. Yes, hip. Well, about as hip as any sort of metal can get, which is not very. Still, Austin’s The Sword getting signed to indie label Kemado was an eyebrow-raising move, to say the least. And yet it worked. Positive reviews came steamrolling in, and the quest to make stoner rock mainstream began. And that brings us to this compilation, which feels influential already.

In stoner rock circles (don’t laugh), The Sword is a much-talked about band. What’s their metal cred like? Are they the “Green Day of Stoner Rock?” Meaning, a gang of photogenic geeks turning a beloved music into a mainstream sensation. Well, to make things simple, no. This much is clear especially with the advent of Gods of the Earth, this year’s followup to Age of Winters. They may have been on Guitar Hero, but The Sword is not nearly radio-friendly enough to catch on with the MTV crowd. It’s just not gonna happen. That being said, more and more of these bands started popping up. A select few:

Wolfmother – Won Best Hard Rock Performance Grammy for Woman, featured on that jackass from Jackass’s compilations, Thom Yorke is a fan

Priestess – Have a song on Guitar Hero III, are featured on just about every single EA Sports Soundtrack.

Black Mountain – Constantly get rave reviews from indie mags, are awesome

You can see how this would be troubling to the average ganja-guzzling Wino fan. This may come off as snarky, of course, but I’m certainly not above the stereotypes I poke fun at. And on that note, onto the actual music.

The album opens with a song by Saviours. The listener is instantly treated to a powerful, sludgy riff before morphing into a bombardment of hollered vocals, relentless drums, and chugging guitars. A strong start, to be sure. The next two songs, Danava – By The Mark and Big Business’s As The Day Was Dawning are both disappointing. Danava unleashes an assault of fuzz-box guitars and laserbeam synths, but nothing really sticks. Big Business…well, the song is just atrocious. Nothing redeemable. Garbage.

Now we enter the strongest stretch of the entire compilation, the portion where it earns my hefty praise of instant influence. We have Black Mountain with Behind The Fall, the best-produced song so far. Deep Purple-style organ as opposed to Danava’s extra-terrestrial keys. Only band to use any sort of dynamics thusfar. Short and sweet. The Sword is up next with Under The Boughs, a song rife with thrash riffery. The vocals come and go as they please, a fresh riff ready to go once the band goes into jam mode. Tempo changes aplenty. Sixth is Dungen – Christopher. It’s 1968 all of a sudden. Hendrixian guitar to lead things off, followed by some flute, cowbell, and organ. However, Dungen leaves you wanting more at a scant two minutes. Things keep rolling with J Mascis’ Witch doing a song called Rip Van Winkle. A heavy-ass riff starts things off with a brilliant Iommi-copping lead in the first few seconds. The vocals are sung in an understated, creepy manner. Gets under the skin. J destroys the drums on this one. Epic, yet still dripping with heaviosity.

A momentary setback with The Fucking Champs’ The Loge. It just sounds astoundingly out of place. Occasional blasts of riff-rock, but it really is just a mathematical, proggy instrumental that should’ve been left off. Torche is next with Mentor. The pummeling riffs of tracks 5-7 return, this time accompanied with a keen sense of melody. Torche is known—infamously so, to some—as a band that boils stoner rock down to 2-3 minute pop songs. For some reason, these people seem to think that’s a bad thing. Solid, as they always are. Pelican – Ran Amber – This instrumental band takes their time, the song not really starting until about two and a half minutes in. When it does, the results are sort of underwhelming. I’ve heard so much good about this band, but if this is the best they have to offer I’ll pass on a full-length. High On Fire – Devilution – Matt Pike, the former guitarist for stoner legends Sleep, fronts this war-metal act. If one was to listen to, say, Dragonaut, and then this song, there’s no way any connection could be made between the two. Pike barks out the vocals, and the band chugs along at a thrashy pace, very dissimilar to Sleep’s mega-drone. Still, if you like this sort of thing—and I do—it’s very good.

Witchcraft – Queen of Bees (Live) – Ah, Witchcraft. Everyone’s favorite Pentagram worshippers with a live version of this cut, from 2005’s Firewood. These four Swedes gets a lot of flak for their Liebling-lifting. But, hey, the world could use a few more bands like Witchcraft. For fans of Black Sabbath and…did I mention they sound like Pentagram? Comets On Fire – Wolf Eyes (Middle Version) – Awful sound. Guitars sound like they were recorded with a cell phone. Ditto with the drums. The entire thing is just so bad. The skip button awaits your command. Diamond Nights – 12 Walls – Creepy—and not in a good way—singing that sounds like it was wretched from the voice boxes of a hundred infants. The killer riff is gone to waste.

We enter the final stretch with Wolfmother’s Love Train. Despite the (false?) hype surrounding this band, they write (wrote? They did break up, right?) well-crafted songs with a retro sound that will either plaster a big, goofy grin on your face or inspire you to kill. Obviously, the former applies to me. Night After Night – Backseat Astronaut – This was one of the few bands I had never heard of going into the album. As it turns out, they’re pretty good. The singer’s not all that great, but none of the singers on this compilation would get past the first round of American Idol. And yet every band on this—even the bad ones—is better than anything to ever come out of that shit-launching pad. Go figure, huh? Warhammer 48K – Get Bodacious – Another instrumental. About halfway through the song, when you think it’s ending, the band goes uber-slow, and all of a sudden the song picks up. Funny how these things work out. All in all, a decent track, but nothing special.

Parchman Farm – Curtis Franklin – RIP Parchman Farm 2003-2006. I adored this band. They had sort of a Blue Cheer-meets-Steppenwolf thing going on, and I loved every damn second of it. This particular tune is taken from the band’s lost tapes. Get everything you can by this band. It’s worth it.

Overall, it’s not perfect. No compilation is. At times you can tell Kemado’s just trying to pimp their new acts, and it sounds stilted, but at others it just flows like the fuckin’ Mississippi, man. An excellent document of this new scene, if it can be called a scene. Definitely some good stuff here, and best used as a jumping-off point to delve into the better bands featured.