From Austin, Texas comes the hard rock/psych quartet known as Sweat Lodge and their new four song EP titled Tokens For Hell for Brutal Panda Records. Nothing fancy or flashy here, just good old psychedelic doom/stoner/hard rock with effects laden vocals, big beefy guitar riffs, and pounding rhythms steeped in attitude. "Life Goes On" is a like a head on collision between Black Sabbath, Hawkwind, and The Sword, while the more atmospheric "Lost the Sun" leaves behind the crushing riffs and instead opts for psychedelic vocal freakouts and layers of effects, the guitars somewhat funky instead of doomy. The bands take on the ZZ Top crusher "Precious and Grace" is a lot of fun (long one of my favorite ZZ Top tunes) and captures the spirit of the original while still allowing for their own flavor to peek through. The closing title track might just be the best of the lot though, as bluesy, fuzz drenched guitar riffs cut through a haze of psychedelia, Dustin Henderson's axe conjuring up images of Blue Cheer, Pentagram, Witchcraft, and ZZ Top with his delicious distort-o-rama. Overall, there's a lot of promise shown here by this four-piece, and I'd love to hear more of the kick ass material they delivered on the opening & closing numbers spread out on a whole album.
Track Listing
1) Life Goes On
2) Lost the Sun
3) Precious and Grace (ZZ Top cover)
4) Tokens for Hell