REVIEW ON 'STONERROCK.HU' (Hungary)

ZIPPO - The Road To Knowledge

9/10

Hopefully there is no need to introduce the Italian Zippo to the Hungarian stoner audience because the band is a regular visitor of our country for a few years now and not only in Budapest but in Szeged as well. The last time they graced us with their presence was last October when they were touring with their album The Road To Knowledge. Nevertheless the album is still fresh because the distribution on a larger scale only started during the beginning of 2009.

Their current line up - Dave (vocals), Sergente (guitar), Devis (guitar), Stonino (bass) and Ferico (drums) was settled just before the publishing of the album when the place of Slivio the previous guitarist was filled by Devis who used to play thrash/death. Since the album was already done Devis didn’t have much say regarding the new material, nevertheless, there are significant changes since their 2006 debut album Ode To Maximum.

The basis of the album was Carlos Castaneda’s The Teachings of Don Juan which tells us about the author’s meeting and experience with a Yaqui Indian sorcerer. Mind altering herbal concoctions, spirits, invocations of gods and encounter with death makes a great starting point to a stoner rock album. The most obvious difference the album makes in the light of their previous one is the minimal amount of stoner and doom themes used in songs, for sake of example take the sixth track Kid in the Desert into consideration as the song entirely lacks both. Instead, what we have here is a psychedelic feeling built up from progressive ideas, not only in the case of instruments but in Dave’s singing style as well, which can be rarely heard from a stoner group, particularly not for a whole album. Regarding the rhythm of the album one can find other peculiar things as well, like the South-American musical root which is not surprising, however as to how well the band performs it, it should be noted. It is not uncommon to experience sudden shifts during songs which give a unique impulse to the whole album. It would be pointless to mention songs individually because all of them are well written and diverse which can also be said about the lyrics - no wonder, since it is a concept album - basically it serves as the basis of the whole thing.

Although it is not my habit to give scores, if I really had to I would give it 9 out of 10, a different kind of music compared to Ode To Maximum but still Zippo.

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