With their second release for Napalm Records, Swedish hard rock/doom act The Graviators once again dip into their '70s bag of tricks and have put together a mighty fine collection of bruising songs sure to please any fan of vintage Black Sabbath, Pentagram, or more recent bands such as Orchid, Graveyard, and Witchcraft. Motherload contains plenty of trippy psychedelic nuances, crushingly heavy riffs, Ozzy/Bobby Liebling influenced vocals, and massive grooves, which is basically everything you might want from an album of this type. However, the songs have to kick ass, the atmosphere has to be right, and everything needs to be memorable...well, Motherload hits on all points, and then some.
There are just so many pure headbanging moments here, driven by some truly heavy, delicious riffs, that will instantly take you back to the glory days of Sabbath, the best of Pentagram, and even some of the early work of Candlemass. Yes, the almighty riff rules supreme throughout, especially on monstrous songs such as "Narrow Minded Bastards", "Bed of Bitches", and the rampaging "Corpauthority". Love screaming, psychedelic tinged wah-wah guitar solos? Plenty of them here on the more trippy numbers like "Leif's Least Breath - Dance Of The Valkyrie " and "Tigress of Sibiria", while "Lost Lord" even throws some prog elements into the mix, just in case you needed even more variety. "Drowned in Leaves" contains some dark, creepy atmosphere, blown apart in a few spots by some gargantuan riffs, and "Eagles Rising" features some haunting effects laden vocals and more supreme riffs. If all that ain't enough, there's the near 14-minute closer "Druid's Ritual", another psych-doomster complete with slabs of riffs and explosive wah-wah soaked blues rock solos.
I don't want to forget to mention that the bass playing is off the charts on this album and very prominent in the mix, so great job done by Johan Holm. His partner on the drums Henrik Bergman also does a fine job, hitting all the thunderous grooves but also showing a jazz/prog touch in spots as well. Martin Fairbanks is a fiery player who has mastered many of the greats of the '70s, and is a guitar hero in the making. Throw in the very effective vocals from Niklas Sjöberg and you have a band that is firing on all cylinders right now, and they've delivered an outstanding release of doom, psychedelia, and '70s hard rock that is as good as anything I've heard in some time.
See more about this release on our recent YouTube show!
Track Listing
01 Leif's Least Breath - Dance Of The Valkyrie
02 Narrow Minded Bastards
03 Bed of Bitches
04 Tigress of Sibiria
05 Lost Lord
06 Corpauthority
07 Drowned In Leaves
08 Eagles Rising
09 Druid's Ritual
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