Album Review: Wolfmother, 2005, Self-titled, Modular/Universal

Stoner rock, psychedelic metal, call it what you will, an Australian band has never attempted it, until now. Bands like Fu Manchu, Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age (which formed from Kyuss’s remains) are purveyors of stoner rock. Heavy droning riffs, crashing drums, pounding bass and vocals from out of this world, are the trademarks of this genre started back in the late sixties by bands like Blue Cheer, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. It died in the late seventies to make way for a new brand of heavy rock called metal. It could not compete with punk, glam and all the new sounds emerging and so retreated into the hemispheres until it was rediscovered in the nineties by a new age wave of grunge heads who wanted to delve back into the past to assist create something new, fresh and heavy. But Wolfmother are something else; theyare not as heavy as the nineties bands from the desert of California but playing the bluesy, hard hitting rock that flourished in England in the late sixties and early seventies.

The debut album of Wolfmother is a really courageous move in the Australian music scene. With the biggest deal in Australia since Jet, Wolfmother were going to have to deliver something good. And they did. Wolfmother’s album is an electric mix of psychedelic rock, with heavy fuzz driven blues rock guitar, groovy underlying bass, spacey, soulful and spiraling keyboard, drum rolls that will pound you back to the seventies and keep you trapped there. The lead singer and guitarist Andrew Stockdale, has quite a distinctive voice quite reminiscent of Ozzy Osbourne, Robert Plant and Jack White.

The album has been well received by the Australian public, coming 3rd in the Aria charts. The singles, Woman and Minds Eye, have both been hits. They won Triple J’s Artist of the year competition and are about to come off a lengthy Australian tour to head overseas to tour in the UK. I hope the Brits are as impressed as I am. I give Wolfmother’ debut album 4 stars.