Astrosoniq - Quadrant

 

All things considered, stoner rock should be relatively easy to pull off. Black Sabbath riff worship – tick; psychedelic blues fixation – tick; mid-tempo sludge – tick. But why have so many tried and failed? For any number of reasons, but in this case, it happens to be the staged delivery of some fairly commonplace material. Don’t get me wrong: it “rocks”, but in the most predictable of ways. As one would expect, this Dutch quintet have chops galore, with trippy samples and spaced-out effects peppered throughout, yet these cockrock anthems somehow manage to never really leave the ground, let alone kiss the sky or explore the stars. The vocals are shabby and exaggerated, which only serves to highlight the computerised overproduction and dependence on various studio gimmicks. While the proper stylistic influences have been faithfully absorbed, the results are bland and counterfeited, low impact drills that all but scream “Kyuss cover band”. Yawn. [Eric Ledford]