Black Rainbows : " Superskull"

 This Italian band pays their respects to Black Sabbath while riding the boogie train Clutch set into motion. The singer makes piercing declarations from a similar place as Ozzy, but with more grunge influence, making it third generation Ozzy worship. The fuzzy riffs are focused on grooving, rather than undercurrent of aggression that empowered Sabbath's darker guitar sound. They cruise their Camaros down a highway that  parallels what Atomic Bitchwax already does.. "Superhero Dopeproof" is a great song title and interesting lyrical concept. Drugs seems to be a major theme of this album, unlike most stoner rock band they are musing harder narcotics than jazz  cabbage. 

I appreciate when the recoil in on the verse riff of "Children of  Fire and Sacrifices" and palm mute more serpentine energy into it. There is more of a creeping shuffle.  "Cosmic Ride of the Crystal Skull" is the first first song where things seem to be moving in a more metallic direction. The vocals glide over the guitar without engaging the riffs directly .  There is an almost jammy feel to their music.  They bring things down to more of a simmer with "the Pilgrim Son". It builds up into a more deliberate doom stomp. The guitarist is really good at creating sonic textures for these kinds of jams. "Til the Outerspace" picks up the pace and cruises along, but does not make a hug impact on me. 

Midway into the meat of the album, I am face with the fact that while there are some songs that they make the most of their strengths as a band, a great deal of their bong boogie , is rather uniform and falls close to  what we have heard plenty of times from other bands who do it  with more unique spins. The hints of grunge is something they would do best to expand upon. The more mellowed shadows of "King Snake" is basically a bong water drenched ballad. Full of syncopated punches" Desert Sun" still rumbles close to the pack when it comes to falling within the bounds of stoner rock. When they back into the strum of "All the Chaos is Mine' the results are more effective , though it is not an attempt at rocking out, however a more interesting song in terms of melody. There is tension and dynamics that allow the vocals more room to weave themselves. 

You are not going to tell me these guys did not know Black Sabbath has a song called "Meglomania". This is not a cover , instead it's one of my pet peeves, when titles of songs are replicated, it shows a lack of creativity lyrically. Sonically it stomps on a road already well travelled as well. They pick up the pace to close out the album with a brisk Hawkwind like number. I will round this one down to an 8.5, they show promise but play it too safe and could be darker for my tastes, but are good at what they are doing.