el Camino
Gold Of The Great Deceiver
Night Tripper Records
Available Now
The band:
Daniel - vocals
Nicke - guitars
Jimmy - guitars
Timmy - bass guitar
Mattias - drums
Songs:
1. Gold Of The Great Deceiver
2. This Land Of Mine
3. Black Witch Love
4. Småland
5. Torn
6. The One Of Evil
7. The Wizard
8. Utmarsch
Aren't assumptions a bitch? You hear about something without digging deeper to find out what it's all about and subsequently form your opinion on a notion. Nowhere is that more apparent than in music with genres, sub-genres, genres of sub-genres etc. The same goes with band names too....which leads me to my fellow Swedes in el Camino. My first reaction to their name is images of the car and immediately I think of stoner rock and that's not bad since I like that type of music. However, as soon as I hit play it dawns on me that this isn't stoner at all. Instead I'm treated to a filthy heavy-ass doomy death'n'roll band who are fucking awesome! But you get my point? Before I actually got to listen to their new amazing album, Gold Of The Great Deceiver, my mind was expecting something completely different. Why is it so hard to simply press play and listen and then decide what it is. Oh well, enough bitching and moaning on my own narrow-mindedness and let's get down to business.
It is clear right from the start that el Camino aren't here to bullshit. They mean business and go straight for the jugular with the title track Gold Of The Great Deceiver. Filthy, nasty and evil it annihilates anyone standing in their way. None of their songs are really that fast instead they keep it mid-tempo throughout which definitely helps to bring out the darker side of the band. This Land Of Mine follows and is almost punkish in a way and I think that lays mainly in the vocal approach. Daniel has a real cool raspy, angry voice which would make him fit into any kind of metal/punk style. On Black Witch Love el Camino slow things down a notch sounding like King Giant just about....and that's not bad in my book. Guitarists Nicke and Jimmy excel on this one displaying some real nice licks and solos. The filth and grime really comes out on Småland. For those not in the know Småland is the county in Sweden where el Camino are from. It's in the south, it's pretty big and somewhat desolate in places. A great incentive to write heavy, evil music, don't you think? Fanken gubbar, jag bor i Tennessee och det är helvetet också!
Torn is sloooow almost sludgy and damned good. The middle section has a repetitive awesome riff going on until an even better solo duel starts. The One Of Evil brings to mind a mixture of Black Sabbath and Cathedral where the guitar playing draws heavily from the mighty Iommi and who can complain about that? Great stuff people. The Wizard is up next and no it's not a cover of Black Sabbath's song. Instead it's actually kind of melodic in parts but fret not metalheads because it helps to accentuate the heavier parts of the track real good. Utmarsch follows, which is Swedish and roughly translates to Marching Out, and it is a fitting title since it is the last song on the album. Slow, heavy and evil it draws Gold Of The Great Deceiver to an end and it leaves me yearning for more of this Swedish filth.
Having previously released one full-length, two EP's and two demo's el Camino have certainly found their way and sound and I absolutely love it. Keeping the music on the slower side have certainly helped to bring out the evil they are looking for in their songs. True, most bands of this ilk opt for super fast annihilation which works great. However, going the opposite way el Camino stands out in the best possible way especially since they are carving out their own niche in an over-populated music world. Great stuff, people don't miss out on them!
Written by Håkan Nyman
