StonerRocK from the USA
Snail - Mental Models
Wow! First Black Pyramid and now Snail, What a year for releases from Meteorcity! Snail had hung up their boots called it quits, After recording a Self-titled release in 1993 and soon after an Ep titled "All Channels Open "the band fell to the wastelands of Rock n Roll, sex, drugs and evil women (Damn them:-).Over a decade later Snail's new and Unforgiving sound now reigns supreme picking up where they left off and no doubt releasing a dream once thought never to be, to be...
Snail's Blood recording from get go crushes everything in its path! Like a pest or a disease that eats everything in its way. Mental Models is simply Crushing , low down tuned phased out bass line intro which leads into a Goatsnake / Mass styled chord progression , the vocals by Mark are simply killer, delivered with so much heart. You know this record means the world to these guys and yes the dream is now reality.
Cleanliness, another stand out track, is perfect grunge rock but with a heavy stoner edge, that kind of 90's sound we all grew up to dig! Big dual guitars flowing speaker to speaker, rim shot drumming and Marks echoing lyrics, persisting and insisting to "Get High" the lead after the build up is fucking awesome! Short but sweet, perfect 90's heavy grunge riffs, the way the good old carefree days were.
Blood, is something that just consumes you, not one track on this record is a filler, it's heavy, untamed straight to the point heavy ass Fuzzy Groove rock, hook after hook ! How I never heard these guys back in the early 90's is beyond me! Never since the "Alice in Chains" album "Dirt" have I ever been so consumed and buzzed! Snail have managed to bring all there now," old school "influences to the table and produced a record that is so unique and well crafted you'd think there is no way this record could have been shelved and put to rest back in the mid 90's.
Snail have produced something special, production on Blood is absolutely perfect and captured to its finest detail, from the, sustain on the fuzz boxes, every drum hit, every bass note played and every lyric sang. Fans of Valis, Goatsnake and all the grunge era will smash the shit out of this record! Thank you Snail and thank you Meteorcity for delivering yet another killer new release that will no doubt stand the test of time for many years to come \m/
Reviewed by Matt Frighetto
Track List
01 Mental Models
02 Sleep
03 Underwater
04 Committed
05 Via/Penny Dreadful
06 Relief
07 Blood
08 Cleanliness
09 Screen
10 Not for Me
11 Blacklight
