Here's another Meteor City act that plays rocked out stoner/doom/sludge/whatever the fuck you want to call it, but has a really unique vocalist that really adds to their shockingly diverse sound. This particular New Jersey band is definitely heavily inspired by the harder/darker side of the 70's, but the vocals are awesome dry, slightly throaty, midrange singing that really stands out a lot. But there is also some forceful shouting and what have you, so nothing is one-sided. These guys damn sure cover a lot of ground in their songs. There are tons of tempo changes, the basslines run around quite a bit, they jump from fuzzed out dual guitar harmonies to faster chord progressions or wah fueled solos, the atmospheres range from calmer and more sinister to energetic and melodic, etc. Hell, there are even some keyboards and harmonica on rare occasions... and the legendary Wino even makes a few guest contributions in the guitar/lyrical departments. They also drop a few covers: Pentagram's "Forever My Queen" and Agnostic Front's "With Time". Needless to say the Agnostic Front track comes as an enormous shock, but damn if they don't offer an interesting spin on it! The recording is pretty damn good. The guitars and bass have awesome textures with a lot of grit and density going on, the drums sound pretty good, and the vocals are mixed in with the music pretty well. There are a few minor gaps in the sound, and something sounds a little bit muffled (perhaps the vocals, I think there's some sort of filter over the singing most of the time) so a brighter high-end kick might help, but this certainly works out just fine for the most part. The layout's okay. I like some of the art but I really don't like the font used within the booklet because it just doesn't fit. But the design on the CD face looks cool, and the front cover I really like. It's totally insane. Part of it is completely apocalyptic (with elements lifted from certain classic paintings), but then you get into the snakes coming out of nipples, the flying vagina hamburger ladies, a huge strawberry, a bird eating a baby... I mean, what the fuck!? The lyrics were omitted for some odd reason, which is a shame, but what can you do? My only complaint with this release is that it's definitely too long for one sitting. With most songs running more than six minutes, even the diversity can get tedious after awhile, and more than an hour's worth of music is just too much to handle in almost any case. So trimming about 20 minutes off of the total running time might have made the disc sit better as a whole, but at the same time... there aren't any bad songs here, just a few that aren't as good as the others (well, "Common Cause" isn't that hot, but whatever). If you're into this stuff, definitely check these guys out. What is it about New Jersey, man? Fuck... there are all sorts of great bands up there.
[Meteor City]
Running time - 64:34, Tracks: 13
[Notable tracks: Indolence, In the Oven, Rice Burner]
Meteor City - http://www.meteorcity.com
