Wednesday 20 April 2016

Bad Acid - Revelations Of The Third Eye (Album Review)


Release date: April 30th 2016. Label: Ozium Records. Format: CD/DD/Vinyl

Revelations Of The Third Eye – Tracklisting

1. Intro/Inferno 6:24
2. Amnesia Haze 3:17
3. Revelations of the Third Eye 7:23
4. The Oldest Lie 4:59
5. Heavy Lies The Crown 7:13
6. Bad Acid 5:21
7. Spellbound 8:28

Band Members:

Vocals – Simona Mignola
Guitar – Mattias Lundberg
Bass – Victor Wårdsäter
Drums – Jonathan Wårdsäter

Review:

Ever imagined what a bastard love child between Truckfighters and Blues Pills would sound like – ponder no more and welcome the dirty highway orphan in Bad Acid. This is a rather new band established in the wake of the untimely demise of brilliant Swedish purveyors of fuzzy stoner rock Mamont. On Bad Acid’s first real outing they have managed to pull off the perfect marriage between bluesy 70s inspired hard rock and 90s Kyuss inspired desert rock. This formula definitely works for them and is sure to attract many fellow stoner heads seeking a fix for their cravings.

Revelations Of The Third Eye is filled to the brink with well-crafted, metal infused and fuzzy stoner rock with a dash of doom vibe sprinkled on top. This might be the sound of Alunah taking it to the desert highway on a wildly addictive drug-influenced ride.

In opposition to its precursor, Bad Acid is fronted by Simona and with the obvious possibility of coming of as gender discriminating, which tends to be hit and miss (no pun intended) with me. But with the sheer force and talent she possesses, I have no other choice than to bow in the desert dust in awe of her performance on Revelation Of The Third Eye. The vocal duties easily deserves comparisons to the genre’s best and have no trouble competing with Elin (Blues Pills), Alia (Blood Ceremony), Sophie (Alunah) or Dorthia (Windhand) for that matter.

However, what is a great singer without an equally great background to play against? Not much, I would say, and luckily, the rest of Bad Acid’s in all aspects matches Simona in creating the perfect musical playground. Fat, fuzzy, swirling riffs that meander, chuck, churn and twist on top of a rhythm section with balls the size of Ayers Rock where the drums are loud and think, whilst distorted bass lines whip the fuzz fest in full motion. This comes as no surprise when it dawns upon you that Victor and Jonathan who previously shook the ground in Mamont handling the bass and guitar respectively.

A short acoustic ‘Intro’ sets the mood for Revelations Of The Third Eye and immediately I find myself straying along a desolated desert highway feeling a storm approaching. After roughly a minute and half of eerie awaiting, I am suddenly hurled up from the ground when ‘Inferno’ throws me straight into the eye of the storm. As the song title indicates this is a sublime stoner rock experience where the fast forward moving rhythms with menacing voices flickering in and out through the grooves forged by the other three band members. Just one song in and Bad Acid has already turned the crucible red-hot.

Amnezia Haze’ sets slowly in motion by a cool sounding bass-line pushing the song into cruise mode; here is your perfect soundtrack to cross Death Valley, driving drums, and great melodic guitar riffs. The catchy as hell chorus that will leave you humming “amnezia haze” for the remainder of the day. This is one hell of a memorable tune that needs no more than one or two spins to last long in the memory.

With the title track, Bad Acid leaves the dusty canyons and desert roads behind and take off from Earth heading for a more spaced out sound. ‘Revelations Of The Third Eye’ is perhaps the standout track for me on this album as the band really shines and show off their eminent musical skills and skillful interplay. A few minutes later the band flies into orbit and the rest of the song is one long tour-de-force in how to jam-the-F-out making four individuals appear as one amalgamated unity.

The Oldest Lie’ brings Bad Acid back from space to serve us another round of groovy-as-can-be stoner rock. On this song I am reminded of Jess and the Ancient Ones due to the brilliant vocals. How peculiar to have this arranged on top of some of the heaviest and fuzziest desert rock. To me this is like getting the best of both worlds.

On ‘Heavy Lies The Crown’, ‘Bad Acid’ they continue their stoner rock musical progress as the superb guitar work in the middle of the track, again show a great ear for melodies the band has. It’s a pleasure to experience a band who know their own strengths and play them to their fullest potential.

Spellbound’ closes out this brilliant and utterly entertaining debut and guess what they have saved some of the best riffs for last. Despite being the longest song and having a fairly long run-time (8:28) for the genre (as this is neither a pure doom or space rock album), the songs packs so much nerve, melody and variation that you as listener completely forget time and space and just flow along, hoping it never stops.

It has been quite some time since I last encountered an album with such a degree of re-play-ability. As soon as the tunes from ‘Spellbound’ fades out, all you want to do, is to just hit play and take another sonic ride full-on Bad Acid style. Job well done. Now head over to Ozium Records, who handles this release on both CD and vinyl, and show some love for this talented band. On with the headphones, press play, lean back, indulge….

Words by Niels Fuzz Bartholdy

Revelations Of The Third Eye will be available to buy on CD/Vinyl via Ozium Records from April 30th 2016.

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