Customer Reviews

Ode To 10

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Coming from a longtime stoner rocker, especially the psych end, they are in my top 5 with Kyuss, 7zuma7, 35007 and Colour Haze. Lowrider is Sweden's finest. I love this band and play them on my internet radio station.

If you like Unida you will dig these guys. They rock as hard and have a great sound. Awesome guitar tone and unlike the other reviewer I think the vocals are pretty darn good and fit the music. I give them five stars because although this isn't the most innovative work they make a tremendous effort here and definetly satisfy my hunger for riffage and grooves. The production is also excellent. Rock On..........

Lowrider's split EP with Nebula showed their ability to create fuzzy and melodic desert rock tracks. It was a big nod, perhaps even a massive head jerk to the legendary Kyuss. _Ode to Io_ sees the band experimenting with structures and melody more; they create a fine piece of stoner/desert rock as a result.

I have read a review criticising the vocals on this album, but personally I enjoy them. They have a relaxed, dreamy quality to them, highlighted by the slow burning "Riding Shotgun" and the very trippy, desert recalling "Texas Pt I & II". Also the melancholic, almost ballad-esque "Anchor" seems a direct nod to QOTSA and particularly Homme's eerie and ethereal background vocals.

Examples of the bands keen ear for melody and song structuring is highlighted in my personal favourite "Dust Settlin'" which has a strong groove and a mighty chorus. The title track closes the album in instrumental style with the band demonstrating why this is not your average throw-away stoner album. It builds and broods, much like the epic Kyuss tracks did, full of fuzzy riffs and jamming; finally reaching a riff onslaught.

This is a great album and one that builds as it progresses. These Swedes don't worry about hiding their Kyuss and Sabbath influences, they relive the golden says and give it a hint if their own style. A good advancement from the four track EP.

Fans of Kyuss, Sleep, Unida, Hermano, Sabbath, Orange Goblin etc will enjoy.

Four Sweedens into stoner, and they make it great, Sabbath, Kyuss, psychodelic, and a touch of 70s mixture and you get Lowrider, production is a little clean to be a band with Kyuss influences but it sounds yet kick ass!!!!, loud very loud bass sections that almost reach distortion and acoustic guitar parts along with vocals that seems to flirt with anguish and then with rage, stoner rock entered the cold woods of Europe and this is great!!!!!!! i love this cd.
HM

Kyuss didn't come out with enough material to satisfy their many rabid fans and bands like Lowrider rightly came in to fill the void. When a band like Kyuss attracts a voracious cult following, there should be bands that see that style as an orthodoxy and make more music in the same basic tradition. How many bands ripped off the Ramones and Sex Pistols? About a gazillion. And thats fine. These guys know how to deliver the goods. Every song has crushingly heavy riffs and a satisfying payoff. In fact, Caravan is the most listened to song on my Ipod and Shivaree (from Lowrider's split EP with Nebula) is in a close second place! If you love Kyuss, and you don't own this album, you're needlessly denying yourself a great pleasure.

Unfortunately, Lowrider disbanded before they could really forge their own identity--but keep an eye out for "I Are Droid" which features the vocalist/bassist from Lowrider and the drummer from Dozer. These guys are putting something together right now in a somewhat different vein. And, given Lowrider's talent, I expect it to be good.

Thanks to Jesse James at West Coast Choppers (and Discovery Channel) for turning me on this genre of rock. These guys rank right up there with Fu Manchu and Nebula. Plenty of distortion and fuzz to go around. Favorite tracks are Riding Shotgun (psyched out vocals and riffs), Saguaro, Flat Earth and Caravan. It is hard driving thru the entire CD except for Sun Devil where they take a slower/lighter approach for a minute or so. Then it's back up to 90 miles an hour again. I too, like the vocals and think they do just fine. I do hate the label of Stoner/Doom rock, but I can't describe just what kind of a label you can hang on this type of music. I wish my local radio station would play this instead of all the new heavy-rock bands that have absolutely no talent. Also check out the Nebula/Lowrider "Split" CD, it's an absolute must-have too.

The mighty Kyuss was indeed the most underrated band in stoner rock's short history. Figures they'd be bigger now that they're long dead than they ever were alive. But now that we know they ain't coming back-just take a listen to Queens Of The Stone Age's latest platter and get ready to hurl!-let's leave the door ajar for the Kyuss klones. Dozer does it best on the heavy tip, but musically, at least, Sweden's Lowrider holds their own at lesser sonic levels. Guitarists Ola Hellquist and Niclas Stalfors perfectly peg Josh Homme's fuzzophonic tonal quality on most every tune (especially "Caravan," "Flat Earth," and "Dust Settlin'"), but bassist Peder Bergstrand just doesn't have the vocal strength to make the trip worthwhile. "Texas Part I & II" (originally on the Welcome To MeteorCity comp) undergoes little change after two years; although Bergstrand's voice hasn't gotten much better since then, the band has tightened up in the meantime and seriously sharpened their sound on their drawerful of Kyuss knives. The sprawling title track gravitates through space toward the Monster Magnet cluster; "Convoy V" hops asteroids in the Slo Burn belt; and "Riding Shotgun" flips the Fu Manchu afterburners. While Dozer holds the gold and Natas's fluidity results in a silver, Lowrider will have to be satisfied with a bronze medal in the Kyuss kompetition until Bergstrand learns how to sing.