Personal admission: when it comes to \u201cstoner rock,\u201d I am probably the least qualified person to handle such matters. This is because, in my 51 years on the planet, I have never indulged in any illicit substance. And yet, I am a fan of such bands as The Grateful Dead, and can enjoy works from other bands in the genre like Orange Goblin and The Atomic Bitchwax. One does not necessarily have to \u201cexpand your mind\u201d in order to appreciate the musical talents of such artists.<\/p>\n
And then, there\u2019s Monster Magnet. Over the past 30 years, I\u2019ve been exposed to them in several ways, and I\u2019ve just never connected with Dave Wyndorf\u2019s style of music. Is it because I\u2019m so \u201cwhite-bread\u201d in my lifestyle, I should have the word \u201cWONDER\u201d tattooed across both my arms?<\/p>\n
Case in point: I dusted off Spine Of God<\/i>, the first full-length effort from Monster Magnet. While I can appreciate the musical talents of Wyndorf and the band, I just don\u2019t find myself connecting with the songs or their messages.<\/p>\n
Maybe it was a slightly muddied production job, as evidenced on the opening track \u201cPill Shovel,\u201d that set the tone for the experience. Maybe it was the drawn-out jams on tracks like \u201cBlack Mastermind\u201d and the title track. Maybe it\u2019s because I did go into this album sober as a judge.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not that I didn\u2019t enjoy the album; there were tracks that definitely suggested that Monster Magnet was on the correct path (for them, at least). There is a charm to \u201cNod Scene\u201d that transcends words, while \u201cZodiac Lung\u201d is a fun song to listen to and gives the band a chance to show off their talents in a more structured setting. And there is something to their cover of Grand Funk\u2019s \u201cSin\u2019s A Good Man\u2019s Brother\u201d\u2014somehow, I can\u2019t see any other band pulling that one off.<\/p>\n
Yet Spine Of God<\/i>, in the end, is less satisfying of an album, serving as a \u201cwhat if\u201d declaration from Monster Magnet. It does show off the band\u2019s skills well, but doesn\u2019t quite capture what they obviously were capable of\u2014which leads to the question of what if they had<\/i> indeed tapped into that potential. (Would they be able to do so on future albums? Only continued listening will tell.) For a first full-length effort, not bad\u2014but not great.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6886],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-46461","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-monster-magnet","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46461","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46461"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}