El Caco - Solid Rest
2003 - Black Balloon Records
By Philip Whitehouse
Go to the El Caco website.
Bit of an identity crisis going on here, methinks... El Caco utilise imagery from Mexican subculture in their promotional material (like the bandana-sporting skull glaring from the promo sticker slapped proudly to the side of my PC), while sounding like they were recently kicked out of some dingy Lousiana whiskey bar for drinking their own body-weight in Jack Daniels and selling dope. However, they hail neither from every escaping criminal's favourite destination or the land of the free - in fact, they come from Black Metal central - Oslo, in Norway. Who knew?
About as far-removed from the corpse-painted savagery of their countrymen as its possible to be, El Caco specialise in hard-rocking stoner music that references everyone from Monster Magnet to Crowbar to EyeHateGod, whilst retaining a near-psychedelic sense of melody and an idiosyncratic uniqueness all of their own. A sterling follow-up to critically acclaimed debut 'Viva', 'Solid Rest' is a fuzzed out, bottom heavy slab of heavy riffage, strongly bellowed vocals and thick, groove-laden basslines.
Oyvind Osa handles both the vocal and bass duties which equal proficiency and aplomb, his gruff yells and more melodic singing complementing perfectly the sludgy grooves of the music. Slower paced songs like the sinister, pounding of the hypnotic 'Blind No More' sit equally well with more balls-out rock numbers like the driving 'Nice Day', and throughout the riffs combine southern-fried heaviness with subtle but undeniably catchy melodies that retain the interest.
The material, sadly, does become somewhat samey as the album progresses, but considering how strict the confines of the stoner/sludge subgenre usually are, El Caco have done an impressive job of expanding the boundaries of their chosen style, and are seemingly on the cusp of making this style acceptable to the mainstream - it will be particularly intriguiging to see how the upcoming video for 'Nice Day' fares on MTV 2 and the like.
Until then, however, I'm content to sit back, pour some whiskey and rock out on some seriously old-school, hard-rocking grooves from a geographically misaligned but undeniably talented trio.
7/10
2003 - Black Balloon Records
By Philip Whitehouse
Go to the El Caco website.
Bit of an identity crisis going on here, methinks... El Caco utilise imagery from Mexican subculture in their promotional material (like the bandana-sporting skull glaring from the promo sticker slapped proudly to the side of my PC), while sounding like they were recently kicked out of some dingy Lousiana whiskey bar for drinking their own body-weight in Jack Daniels and selling dope. However, they hail neither from every escaping criminal's favourite destination or the land of the free - in fact, they come from Black Metal central - Oslo, in Norway. Who knew?
About as far-removed from the corpse-painted savagery of their countrymen as its possible to be, El Caco specialise in hard-rocking stoner music that references everyone from Monster Magnet to Crowbar to EyeHateGod, whilst retaining a near-psychedelic sense of melody and an idiosyncratic uniqueness all of their own. A sterling follow-up to critically acclaimed debut 'Viva', 'Solid Rest' is a fuzzed out, bottom heavy slab of heavy riffage, strongly bellowed vocals and thick, groove-laden basslines.
Oyvind Osa handles both the vocal and bass duties which equal proficiency and aplomb, his gruff yells and more melodic singing complementing perfectly the sludgy grooves of the music. Slower paced songs like the sinister, pounding of the hypnotic 'Blind No More' sit equally well with more balls-out rock numbers like the driving 'Nice Day', and throughout the riffs combine southern-fried heaviness with subtle but undeniably catchy melodies that retain the interest.
The material, sadly, does become somewhat samey as the album progresses, but considering how strict the confines of the stoner/sludge subgenre usually are, El Caco have done an impressive job of expanding the boundaries of their chosen style, and are seemingly on the cusp of making this style acceptable to the mainstream - it will be particularly intriguiging to see how the upcoming video for 'Nice Day' fares on MTV 2 and the like.
Until then, however, I'm content to sit back, pour some whiskey and rock out on some seriously old-school, hard-rocking grooves from a geographically misaligned but undeniably talented trio.
7/10
