Tag Archives: fu manchu

YAWNING BALCH – Volume Four

Posted on by
Reply

With its bright sounding guitar lines and prominent bass groove, ‘Pyramid of Djoser’, the lead track from Yawning Balch’s fourth opus, opens a little more forcefully than you’d possibly expect from a typical Yawning Balch recording. In many ways, its busier feel, evident even from its first few bars, comes closer to sounding more like a Yawning Man leftover. This doesn’t make it in any way bad, of course: for desert rock fans, the immediacy with which the quartet hit a rocky groove here creates something striking; something which, stylistically, sits at the pinnacle of desert rock coolness.

Continue reading →

YAWNING BALCH – Volume Three

Posted on by

The first two albums by Yawning Balch – the side project featuring members of Yawning Man with Fu Manchu guitarist Bob Balch – yielded some fabulous music. The lengthy, improvised jams filled a pair of records with brilliant, almost ambient desert rock sounds; a whole world of sonic textures that really capture a moment, but really allow listener to be really drawn in by the band’s almost cinematic qualities.

Continue reading →

SLOWER – Rage And Ruin

Posted on by

Formed as a vehicle for playing Slayer classics at a doom metal tempo, Slower had the potential to be the greatest “novelty” band ever. They were smart, though: once you’d got past the amusement of hearing some of your favourite speed-oriented metal bangers played as funereal dirges, their debut album held up on its own merits. Fu Manchu man Bob Balch and members of Kylesa, Monolord and Year of The Cobra each bought their own unique talents to the project, and each of the tracks played out like the ultimate in classic doom and sludge fare. The result certainly wasn’t what Tom Araya had envisaged, but it was fantastic to hear a new twist on the classics.

Continue reading →

SLOWER – Slower

Posted on by

Slower. As the name implies, this band is all about the doom. However, this is doom with a twist. Bringing together members of Kyuss, Fu Manchu, Kylesa, Year of The Cobra and others, the performers are famous in their own right, but nowhere near as famous as Slower’s choice of material. This debut album features five Slayer classics, each one drastically reimagined as a timeless doom/sludge piece; five numbers that end up invariably sounding like more like Acid King than Kerry King. It seems inconceivable that speed driven bangers that sound tracked a generation’s metallic apocalypse could take on the stance of Electric Wizard and Witch Mountain, but behind their comical name, Slower have made such things a striking reality.

Continue reading →

YAWNING BALCH – Volume Two

Posted on by

Yawning Balch – the collaborative project shared between the members of desert rock band Yawning Man and Fu Manchu’s Bob Balch – unleashed a sprawling giant with their debut release. ‘Volume One’ shared three lengthy instrumentals where the musicians absorbed themselves in a stoner friendly, wavering landscape; it’s improvised riffs going deeper into the desert rock world than many had gone in a long time. It was the perfect record for late night listening, and suggested that, if and when a second volume should arrive, Yawning Balch had the potential to be one of the greatest deep psych/stoner bands ever.

Continue reading →