Thursday 25 October 2012

Mother Of God - 'Anthropos' (Album Review)

By: John Slaymaker

Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 5/02/2013
Label: Small Stone Recordings



I find myself thinking back to when stoner rock was just that, classic feeling, completely uplifting and downright fucking Hooky.

‘Anthoropos’ CD//DD//LP track Listing

1) 230 (2:54)
2) Graenslandet (3:06)
3) The Forest (3:34)
4) Aim for the Sun (5:19)
5) Adrift (4:11)
6) To Live( 3:56)
7) Hoenan (2:18)
8) Windows (4:04)
9) Something From Below (6:41)
10) R Mcord (4:00)
11) Lucy (8:11)

Mother of God is:
Daniel Nygren | Vocals, Guitars
Johan Kvastegård | Guitars
Carl Lindblad | Bass Guitar
Jimmy Hurtig | Drums

The Review

Track one, ‘230’ there is an immediately recognisable stoner riffage of the desert variety, as we are basically stampeded through Death Valley.  This intro riff not quite pilfered, but more compulsory gives me a perfect initial idea of what I’m going to be getting on this album. The vocals remind me immediately of Spice from The Mushroom River Band, the songs structured around this well sung vocal, forming a perfect relationship with the instruments as we are served this meat and potatoes stoner main course first.

‘Graenslandet’  implies more of the same but sung in their native tongue and with the bass nice and high in the mix, they breakdown into a groove reminiscent of old Acrimony, catchy as hell short and sweet!   I only wish I knew what it was all about.  With ‘The Forest’ this rhythm riff takes me way back when The Doors were the band of the moment and Jim Morrison was king of the crooners.  This song is a nice break from the norm and sequenced among the songs perfectly and even picks up pace as The Doors would’ve with nice guitar leads and vocal flourishes.  ‘Aim For The Sun’ the intro of which,  is fantastic psyche blues and opens up a little like Layne Staley would sing it for Alice in Chains, and to be honest there is a little early nineties throughout  this album even breaking into some Soundgarden. The song then speeds up for a little while and I get the impression that they jammed the ending.

The next couple of songs start out quite mellow, allowing Daniel to properly sing and mix it up with his vocal range, he gives it a radio friendly commercial edge which isn’t a bad thing at all.  I would welcome this sort of thing on the radio warmly.  ‘Something From The Edge’ takes us back into a much more psychedelic feeling, mixing a sort of shoe gaze effect, with some cool guitar effects phasing in and out of the chorus and incorporating sweet fuzzy leads.  The longest and last track ‘Lucy’, we are back in the saddle with the stoner desert grooves.  A decent repetitive catchy riff is just what a record like this needs to bow out on, bluesy bridges and heavy horse riding riffs aplenty.  I find myself thinking back to when stoner rock was just that, classic feeling, completely uplifting and downright fucking Hooky.



Band info: Facebook Bandcamp