Monster Magnet is one of those hot bands getting some pretty
\ngood airplay on the hard rock stations. Their latest CD takes a no
\nnonsense approach, but it is their previous release,
\nDopes To Infinity<\/i>, with its creative use of organ,
\nmellotron, and even a theremin, which I think is the more
\ninteresting CD.<\/p>\n
\nDopes To Infinity<\/i> is Monster Magnet’s first taste of
\ncommercial success with their hard driving single “Negasonic
\nTeenage Warhead”. It’s not hard to see why they broke through as
\nlead singer\/songwriter Dave Wyndorf started writing more developed
\nsongs, and the band opened their sound a bit as well, not unlike
\nwhat the alternative band Soundgarden did for
\nSuperunknown<\/i>.<\/p>\n
While there are no obvious singles on
\nDopes To Infinity<\/i> such as “Black Hole Sun” or “Spoonman”,
\nthere are plenty of very good songs. They start out of the gate
\nrunning with the rocking title tune, a great edgy blues type rocker
\nthat sets the right tone for the rest of the CD.<\/p>\n
The spaceyness becomes apparent on the fourth song, “All Friends
\nAnd Kingdom Come” with its heavy use of organs and its slow tempo.
\nAnother slow but heavy tune is “Look To Your Orb For The Warning”
\nwhich has an almost industrial sound, not unlike bands like
\nStabbing Westward.<\/p>\n
As for the rest of
\nDopes To Infinity<\/i>, there is a lot they do right, and a
\ncouple of things they do wrong. The good news is that the CD
\ncontains some interesting twists. For example, they actually have
\nan acoustic number called “Blow ‘Em Off”. I was waiting for this to
\nbe one of those tunes that starts off slow and acoustic, then
\nexplodes into a metal frenzy. Thankfully, they do not ruin a pretty
\ngood tune with that tired cliche.<\/p>\n
My favorite song is “King Of Mars”, a hooky rocker with a Husker
\nDu thing going on. There is also “I Control, I Fly”, a fast, short
\nrocker that really soars. And in another interesting twist, there
\nis actually a sixties sounding psychedelic tune called “Dead
\nChristmas”. The sound reminds me of the kind of song Ted Nugent
\nwould have done in the sixties, but the cynicism of the lyrics is
\npure nineties.<\/p>\n
What it does wrong is have a couple songs that are too long and
\ndrawn out. “Third Alternative” wears out its welcome pretty fast.
\nIt would have been an effectively angry song had it not dragged on
\nso long. The instrumental “Ego, The Living Planet” is just a noisy
\nthrowaway with nothing interesting going on. Another instrumental
\ncalled “Theme From ‘Masterburner'” (where do they come up with
\nthese song titles?) is much better with plenty of great guitar and
\nbass work, and some unpredictable moments.<\/p>\n
The best thing about Monster Magnet on
\nDopes To Infinity<\/i> is that they make every song sound
\ndistinct and somewhat different from the next, while still rocking
\nwith abandon when they need to, but not afraid to try something
\ndifferent either.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":27908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6886],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-39296","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-monster-magnet","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39296"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}