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The Underdogs (ITA) - Nine Ties

Okay, we are making an acoustic Molotov cocktail here. Take the "F**k you"-attitude of Nick Olivieri, the cripping voice of John Garcia, a hardcore punk sound, and a drummer with the pedal to the metal. Yes, could be one of the best forward rocking record of this year. Actually, it´s not that difficult; 4 steps down tuned guitars, a bit of hardcore breaks and oriented by the faster Kyuss-songs like "Green Machine", "100°" and others.

The first three songs ("Dogs reunited", "Knockin´on Hell´s Door" and "Die or Dance") work like mentioned above. This band is clever enough, not to push everything to the limit. My favorite song is "Crawl and Burn", quite influenced by QOTSA and Black Flag.

"A Grass Saga" lingers around between old QUOTSA and Grunge and "B.O.G" hits the gas, without losing the feeling for a cool groove despite all the punk attitude. "Matrix" could easily be found on a better Unida or Hermano release. So there´s no track to recover, you keep on banging and dancing the same time. "Days Unchained" fits perfect for a road trip, again with the perfect balance between groove and heaviness. Stoner Land shows us the closeness between Grunge and Stoner. While Grunge is now considered a musical misstep in history, Stoner has become fashionable and has been celebrating himself for 15 years. This song shows us that both musical directions are actually Classic Rock with deeper guitars, seasoned with punk riffs.

A worthy and logical end of a fantastic album that does not reinvent the wheel, but shows what stoner rock is: relaxed heaviness with down tuned guitars, for which you can dance and bang your head.


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