As one can imagine from the title, Stoned Jesus is a stoner doom band hailing from the Ukraine. Formed in 2009 they have an earlier full length and a handful of demos and eps under their belts. Musically Stoned Jesus is a delicious blend of Black Sabbath groovage and Sleep’s wall of doom, all wrapped up into a fun little headbanging and fistpumping package. Consisting of 5 tracks totaling to a hair under 48 minutes, Seven Thunders Roar is a collossal compilation of fun stoner rock and new and old doom. So if Black Sabbath + Saint Vitus + Goatsnake + Sleep = your kind of math, then this release is surely for you.
To me when it comes to stoner doom, the vocals are essential in deciding if the band is good or not, and while I must admit that when the album first started I wasn’t a fan of the Saint Vitus/Goatsnake vibes but by track 2 I was in love with them. So if you run into this problem just keep listening, they’ll click eventually. The guitar and bass on this is just fucking destructive, and at times it just sounds like the strings are being rattled against the necks in a frenzy of marijuana induced madness. It’s pretty fucking good, I won’t lie. The drum work on this is what you would expect from this style of music, but all the drums are recorded in a perfect level and they are so fucking slow at times that your neck begins to cramp in anticipation of the next snare hit. Again, this is fucking good folks. There is also some fun acoustic work on this release as well, heard in the 13 fucking minute track ‘I’m The Mountain’, which is a more experimental track in my opinion, furthering their embrace of psychedelic influences and sounds.
As for how this release relates to earlier works, I have only listened to their other full length, so in terms of First Communion, Seven Thunders Roar is a much cleaner sounding beast, dropping the noisy Sleep style riffage and sound and exchanging it instead for a catchier, groovier and more upbeat style of performance. So if you were a fan of their earlier Sabbathy work, you might notice a slight change. Also where FC’s vocals were too low in the mix, in Seven Thunders Roar the vocals are little high and distant from the rest of the sludgy music. While this is not a major issue, and you adjust by the end of the first track, I just wish it didn’t sound so disconnected from the instrumental aspect of the record.
Overall it is a really fun release and aside from a few technical mastering complaints there is absolutely nothing wrong with this release. So go get this, light up a bowl or whatever it is you crazy kids do these days and get fucking stoned jesus.
SHIT RATING: GOOD
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