Stubb – Stubb

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For the first ever release on Trippy Wicked drummer Chris West’s new label Superhot Records his other band, Stubb, teams him with Trippy Wicked bandmate Peter Holland on bass and original lead vocalist/guitarist and founder Jack Dickinson for a slightly more ’70s-rooted psych sound than Trippy Wicked’s doom influences, but with plenty of stoner metal in there as well. Indeed the album is kind of front-loaded with the heavier, stoner grooves (particularly opener Road with its fuzzy leads on the intro), which gradually give way over the course of the first seven of the album’s eight tracks to more expansive bluesy stuff, seperated at five by brilliant acoustic number Crosses You Bear, before one final slab of heavier riffing at the start of closer Galloping Horses. That too, as the album’s longest track, then goes on to spread its wings, so to speak, with some of the disc’s best blues-psych playing. The only track which sounds like it a could be a Trippy Wicked track is Scale The Mountain, whose riff could come off Movin’ On, and also features a chorus sung by Holland, who handles all of their vocals; the rest is distinctly Stubb. Produced by Stone Axe‘s Tony Reed, who will also be responsible for the forthcoming new Saint Vitus, there’s a brilliant distinction between a rumbling bass sound which, were it the subject of lesser production, would threaten to overwhelm the guitars, and the rest. This maintains the thick, heavy groove they’ve aimed for while letting the leads cut through. There are a lot of stoner, psych and doom albums to come this year, from many more established acts than Stubb, but they’ll struggle to be this complete.

Written by Andy Lye
More: 2012, Albums, Quick.Play Reviews, Stoner, Stubb