These guys are still bringing it harder than ever. On their eleventh album, Dave Wyndorf and company have tried something new. Always experimenting with different covers throughout their career, they decided to go full-on and create an album of psychedelia covers and Jesus, does some of this absolutely smoke!
The first real track, Hawkwind’s “Born To Go,” is one of their best ever; the instrumentation and Wyndorf’s vocals are just exceptional. Even shortening the original manages to allow the listener to realize how great of a song it really is.
This album allows the band to get wild and goofy as well. Check out the rare J.D. Blackfoot track “Epitaph For A Head” and you’ll know what I’m talking about. Pentagram’s “Be Forewarned” comes across very heavy and menacing with Wyndorf wailing away and you believing that this may be the last voice you ever hear.
Poobah’s “Mr. Destroyer” will leave you feel like you just took several trips and will need something equally strong to bring yourself down. One of the album’s strongest moments comes when the band slows things down on “Death” and it’s one of the finest moments you’ll hear on a metal record this year. When the band gets a bit more punk on the quick ripper “It’s Trash,” the goosebumps start coming up – this shit is that good!
The album closer, Dust’s 1972 “Learning To Die,” is a great musical exercise that is a fantastic way to close things out and show how influenced by obscure psych and hard rock this band has always been. Even thirty years on after making their debut, they have proven that they are still as powerful, dynamic, and frankly psychotic as they were back in their ‘90s heyday. The hair may be colored now and the theatres may be smaller, but the Magnet will be there to satisfy all of your negasonic desires!
