This is the band's 13th album and vocalist Scott Hill has stated it's a double album because they wanted to include mellower songs in the second half. They rock out with an intensity similar to their peers in Atomic Bithc Wax, who we are also known to cover here. The fuzzed-out bong-worshipping grooves amble with vigor. Compared to Queens of the Stoneage, they are rawer to the point of being a garage rock band. The drummer is really killing it on this album, which makes everyone else keep up.
Many of these kinds of bands have taken notes from Foo-fighters, and pursue a similar sonic goal, but with the swagger of the 70s in their pocket. I can also hear a punchy Judas Priest-like "Breakin the Law" type attitude underlying the energy of these songs without directly engaging metal. "Loch Ness Wrecking Machine" carries a more defiant sneer in its march. "Hands of the Zodiac" finds hookier riffs engaging you in an almost Clutch-like manner. There is a little more metal lumber to "Haze the Hides". It's only moderately doomy in it's mood. Perhaps more convincing in this regard live when cranked to 11. With multiple listens this one does grow on me.
They continue a harder stomp with the repetitive groove of "Roads of the Lowly". Which sounds like the Foo-fighters covering Celtic Frost. Once we make it to the fuzzed-out charge it feels like we are amid the rock n roll formula, not unlike the one pounded away at by the likes of AC/DC, the Ramones, and Motorhead, all bands who perfect one approach to rock n roll with a devotion that keeps things to a punk simplicity. The variation in this regard for this band lies in which beat the drummer chooses to lay into. He chooses wisely on "Destroyin Light" as it inspires the guitar to respond with a varied syncopation on the verses, though the chorus is business as usual. "Lifetime Waiting" proves they know their fan base is too stoned to really ask for more than a nuanced groove. They throw a freedom rock solo atop and it's all good man.
"Solar Baptized" is when the drugs begin to kick and offer a more brooding turn of self-reflection. I really like the western tone of the guitar as the reverb rings out leading into the turnaround of the verse riff. The formula of just chanting the song title in the chorus is largely forgotten due to this. It is also the first song where I notice anything that hints at Black Sabbath, pretty good considering we are at this point 9 songs into the album. It's not until "What I Need" that his weakness as a vocalist becomes more apparent as he is forced to stick to his spoken style of vocalizing. He has been selling us attitude instead of melody for the bulk of this album, and when called to sing, it becomes glaring. This also is what has created the uniform sound of this album.
The title track challenges the claims about how the second half of this album sets the rock aside to show their more mellow introspective side, which seems to have only last two songs. "Liquify" feels more like a jammed-out extension of the previous song. "High Tide" is their take on a "Planet Caravan" with a bong boiling jam. I'll give this album a 9, it sets a bar for other stoner bands who followed behind, that is is time to keep the rotation going, as the momentum of this album is its strength.
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