It's been a long time since I've heard a really good stoner/sludge metal album. What qualifies for stoner rock these days is something along the lines of High On Fire's thrash sludge, which is absolutely two devil horns up awesome, but not really what I think of when I think of stoner. Stoner, at least for me, is something along the lines of Sleep and early Monster Magnet, slowed down, blazed out psyche sludge that sounds like the heavy metal version of an acid trip. Zoroaster are not entirely a stoner band, since they do traffic in High on Fire's thrash sludge at times, but they are at their best when they are playing monster spliffed-out riffs the size of megalodon, and when they combine the two it's downright cosmic.
The Atlanta, GA trio formed in 2003 and have been a staple on the doom/sludge scene since the release of their debut album "Dog Magic" in 2007 on the venerable Southern Lord. "Matador", their third album, finds the band at the height of some serious powers, and looks to be the record that will finally move Zoroaster from the "also ran" category to the forefront of modern metal. "DNR" kicks the album off with a brutal assault before settling down into a blues sludge groove, which is eventually blown into the sky by a killer bridge of chunky riffage. A pitch perfect spacious psyche guitar solo and cavernous vocals seal the deal letting listeners know upfront what kind of smoked out black magic they are in for. "Ancient Ones" sounds like a speed up, thrashed out Sabbath and proves the band can tear through a song with the best of them. One can imagine long hair whipping in a perfect circle when the band locks into their double-bass thrash onslaught during the piece. The real goods come in on "Odyssey." The song is as epic sounding as its name implies. It's a massive burner complete with grand canyon sized riffage, god-like vocals, a stratosphere piercing snare drum and guitar solo, and a swamp boogie breakdown at the end. After "Odyssey" it's kind of hard to imagine what the band is going to do to top themselves. Fortunately Zoroaster has many more tricks up their sleeve.
"Trident" switches gears and sounds a bit like the industrial-metal of Nachtmystium's "Addicts," which isn't too much of a surprise since the increasingly ubiquitous Sanford Parker, who has my vote for metal's MVP of the year, produced "Matador" and had a hand in that album. The freaked-out psyche-damaged instrumental "Firewater" follows and sounds like a beast smashing its cage during a very bad trip. The band returns to similar stomping grounds that "Odyssey" tread with "Old World" which sounds exactly like I always wanted OM to sound; huge, heavy, laborious, hypnotic, but with plenty of metal fireworks to satisfy the inner caveman.
The band pushes even further on the cosmic "Black Hole," which seamlessly combines their traditional stoner stomp with the trash sludge of High On Fire. The song is insanely good, particularly when the band lock into a thrash workout with flares of psychedelia that sound pretty much what I imagine a black hole to sound like as it rips everything in its orbit to pieces. It's a great sound for the band and one that I can only hope will be explored further on future releases.
Zoroaster close out the album with a return to pure stoner bliss on the gargantuan title track. The song is great, but really it's just icing on the cake, because by the time we get to the behemoth that is "Matador" we are already under the band's spell, hypnotized by their grooves, pummeled by their riffs and high on their sound. You don't need illicit substances to enjoy "Matador," Zoroaster lays down an atmosphere so thick, so hypnotic that you will feel blazed out by the time you are done listening, and that, my friends, is what true stoner metal is all about.
Wheeler says: Nothing about this album, but her silence spoke volumes. Normally she hates all things metal and usually tells me to turn off whatever I am playing as soon as she hears pounding drums, monster riffs and screaming vocals. Oddly I played this through TWICE, and she did not say a single word about it. I even caught her quasi-headbanging at one point.
"Odyssey"
"Black Hole"
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