Spiritu

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Writer: Greg Wilson
The first thing I noticed about this CD is it had 2 songs at 9:00 minutes and one at 8 which scared me a little. The surprising thing was that none of them seemed that long. The whole CD from start to finish enthralled me. Jadds voice reminds me of an early Chris Cornell at times yet with his own unique style. Every song he sings is crystal clear yet with an edge to it.

You can hear so many influences its hard not to listen to it over and over to try to pick them all out. This has got to be one of the best all around Stoner-rock bands out there. The Guitars, Bass, and Drums all melt together yet have their own identity. The only downside to this CD is it is to short at only 6 tracks. It is apparent that every one of these guys has a passion for their music, which is a great thing to see nowadays. If you don't have this CD yet get it. You won't be sorry.

SPIRITU
Spiritu
(MeteorCity)

Spiritu's eponymous debut captures a hungry, well-rehearsed band whipping the grooves and riding them hard over the course of the three days this took to record. The lack of bells and whistles almost gives this CD a demo feel, though the sound is meaty enough to gelatinize your pancreas.

Jack Endino, the man who recorded and mixed this, has also worked with the likes of Soundgarden, Nirvana and Nebula. A perusal through the CD collection shows him as given "studio assistant" credit on Soundgarden's Louder Than Love from 1989. Louder Than Love is a hell of a good CD, and Spiritu is in some ways its spiritual kin. Both are groove-heavy, with nods to the atomic riffage of days of yore from the likes of Black Sabbath and earliest Led Zeppelin. Each band was slapped with a label it may or may not have cared for ("grunge" for Soundgarden, "stoner rock" for Spiritu), and certainly doesn't say enough about the band's art. And each CD is an accessible if embryonic sample of its respective band's potential.

The biggest departure between the two, though, is mood. Whereas Louder Than Love was dark as pitch (and occasionally darkly funny), Spiritu manages to shake the "doom" label that dogs some of the stoner rock bands by having some fun. Yeah, vocalist Jadd can wail like a poltergeist in a pressure cooker, but he comes off as a man on a mission, not a tortured soul. "Glorywhore" is all rock credo as Jadd sings, "We ain't tortured, no, we're reveling/Maybe that's why you wanna love us so bad." Even as he hails the names of the dead on highway crosses in "Slump," it's great fun to listen to the band halt the ubiquitous riffs ever-so-briefly while he sings, "Throw in your chips and let it ride/We're taking this one all the way to Mexico." And quoting "One Night in Bangkok" (from the musical Chess) near the end of "Fat Man in Thailand" is pretty doggone funny.

So no, Spiritu doesn't attempt to build a better mousetrap here. The band simply knows how to milk a good groove so that eight or nine minutes don't become a lesson in endurance. Give these guys a proper stretch in the studio and time to genuinely flex their musical muscles and they could certainly open a lot of eyes. And ears. - Reviewed by Brian Briscoe

For fans of: Black Sabbath, Kyuss, Blue Cheer