Ironically, my first review of 2018 is not a late 2017 release that I couldn't squeeze in before the year ended, but a late 2016 album from a band I really enjoy that somehow quietly skipped by me. We are talking about Keep It Greasy! from the British proto-metal/biker rock trio known as Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell. This bands first two albums were a pretty exciting blend of the two styles mentioned above, along with some Black Sabbath inspired stoner/doom sounds, a bit of psychedelia, and a touch of classic blues rock. All these elements, for the most part, are still alive on Keep It Greasy!, but the band have toned down the Sabbath love just a bit, as this release veers more towards the blues/biker rock side of things, clearly evident on the two groove laden opening cuts "U Got What I Need" and "Hairy Brain, Pt. 2", each one filled with some fun guitar riffing and lumbering bass lines. Lead vocalist/guitarist Johnny Gorilla has a penchant for heavy, tasty riffs and fuzz toned, blues rock solos, and he's in fine form here once again. "Hawkline Monkster" is a like a bizarre head on collision between The Stooges and Cactus, the guitar chock full of punky fuzz and Bill Darlington's drums chaotic, while the drummer's cowbell comes out for the crunchy, KISS-styled rocker "Pain in Full". The frantic "I'm Movin' " is a lean, mean proto-metal gem, the rhythms pounding, the vocals wailing, and the lead guitars sizzling, but it's on the dark, undulating "Potato Boy" that the bands newfound love of heavy blues rock really comes out, with bassist Louis Comfort-Wiggett laying down some serious bottom end alongside Gorilla's thick guitar tones. Kinda like Cactus or Mountain on steroids! More fat bass appears on the punky "Tired 'n' Wired", and the albums lone stoner/doom track, "Wrong", closes out the album in pulverizing fashion, seemingly like a long lost recording from Black Sabbath's Master of Reality album.
Perhaps not as overwhelmingly potent as Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell's first two albums, Keep It Greasy! is still a hell of a lot of fun and one pretty heavy record. Seeing as this one came out nearly a year and a half ago, we probably can expect their next platter in the not too distant future.
Track Listing
1. U Got What I Need
2. Hairy Brain, Pt. 2
3. Hawkline Monkster
4. Pain In Full
5. I'm Movin'
6. Potato Boy
7. Tired 'N' Wired
8. Wrong
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