ASTEROID / BLOWBACK (s/t) CD
After the successful release of Truckfighter's debut CD 'Gravity X', Fuzzorama Records offers us this split-CD, which is also the debut from two Swedish newcomer bands. ASTEROID is the first group here, and in opposite to their latest demo, the here presented six songs are stronger influenced from the 70's than ever before, and even a slight progressive vibe has found the way into this heavy stew. 'Anagram' is a good example for this development, that sounds as if Queens Of The Stone Age would collide with a heavy organ-based outfit from the early 70's, while 'Hexagon' is an interesting dark combination of psychedelic and heavy blues.
More positive examples are the riff-centric 'Walk Alone' or 'The Big Trip Beyond', and what I also like about ASTEROID is their impressive thick tone. I wouldn't be surprised if their gear includes vintage tube amps.... The production emphasis the warm and huge sound, and it's no surprise that the recordings and mixings have been down by Oskar (Truckfighters) in Örebro's legendary Studio Bombshelter. The second group is BLOWBACK, but their heavy fuzzrock doesn't convine me as much as ASTROID did. Their six songs are well-executed, but for me it's nothing more than the next dose of average Swedish "stonerrock". Sorry, but during the last years I've listened to dozens of bands (not only from Sweden!), who are sounding exactly like BLOWBACK, and I'm not as patience as I used to be two years ago. Only the last track 'Invisible Touch' is a surprise here with it's acoustic medevial-sounding guitars. Maybe they are an amazing and thunderous live-band, but in case of this split-CD ASTEROID have won the race.
(KK)