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Join Seattle's Doom Giants on the Altar of Riff Worship

How is the sound ?

Our Guru Brings Us To The Black Master Sabbath by WEEED

Seattle’s WEEED is a fitting, original tribute to the greats of the fuzz genre – namely Black Sabbath and Sleep – without ripping off their sounds. Instead, they manage to take the sound and build on it with their own touch of fuzzed-out, stoner blues madness. WEEED puts blues, early doom, riffed-out heavy metal, and psychedelic jam together with an overwhelming sense of originality and you can tell they fucking love what they do. Drone-y waves sit underneath huge riffs, cascading cymbals, and vocals that could hang out with the likes of Ozzy, Wino, or Cisneros.

WEEED offers the cool opportunity to listen to their album, track by track, and pick out exactly what they were listening to when they wrote this album. Rushes of Sleep’s Volume 1 sit alongside Sabbath’s Master of Reality and dives into some Earth (gotta represent their home sound) and Pelican in the meantime. You can even hear the Blue Cheer and Sir Lord Baltimore behind it. This combination is reminiscent of Ty Segall’s FUZZ but in my opinion one-ups it and shows it how it’s really done. You could (and should) listen to this album stoned or even on something a little trippier, but you can also take it for a spin when you’re having drinks with dad and talking about the good old days.

I could speak well of this album all day. I sat there after work every day this week getting high, listening to this album, and telling as many people as I could that they needed to listen to this. But on to the specifics. Let’s go track by track, because I’m so excited about this album, I feel like I could do that.

“Dogma Dissolver“: Killer opener. Throat singing a la Sleep’s Volume 1 pull you into a mystical haze that drops out for more Volume 1-esque bass that drifts into a Cisneros-like drone tune, constantly building heaviness and converging into crashing cymbals and noise at the end. Fucking awesome.

“Bullfrog“: Slow. Heavy. Fat. Psychedelic. Shroomy. Groovy. Amazing.

“Rainbow Amplifier Worship“: This song has elements of Boris, Earth, and Pelican, with bluesy, progged-out guitars over journeying drums that all build into dramatic shifts within the song, pulling you in different directions, but keeping you in the groove, so it’s all good. This song displays WEEED’s ability to jam relentlessly.

“Enuma Elish“: This is an old tune of theirs (I believe the first I heard) and you can hear the early-band sound on it, but it fits oh so well in this album – and don’t let it make you think it’s not a good song just because it’s an early one. It is very much a tribute to Master of Reality and is my favorite song on this album to listen to while smoking pot.

“Caravan Spliff“: Very cool, out-there take on the “Some Grass” “Orchid” or “Solitude” quieter, breakdown. However, WEEED brings in a little more psychedelica, with some noticeable slide guitar, throat singing, and a groovy rhythm.

“Nature’s Green Magic“: There is a lot of Earth in this one, but maybe without all the heroin. Really spaced out (not spacey) acoustic guitar that builds into a pleasant drone that builds into haze, weed, shrooms, awesome grooved out riff worship.

I don’t believe I am stepping out of my element when I say that Our Guru Brings Us To The Black Master Sabbath is up there with the classics.

Why is this album worth listening ?

This isn’t just some stoner rock . It is well-crafted, musically aware rock and roll that builds on the foundation that the greats set before us.

. It is well-crafted, musically aware rock and roll that builds on the foundation that the greats set before us. These guys have a chemistry that allows them to oscillate between highly structured rock songs and psychedelic free-form jams without and inhibitions.

This album could have been made in 1992 and I wouldn’t have known the difference.

In what situation you should listen to this album ?

Smoking weed (er, “WEEED”), alone or with friends. I did that three times this week and heard new things each time.

In between spins of Holy Mountain and Volume 4.

When you’re at home listening to records, because this one is available on vinyl.

Something particular to note

Everything WEEED has ever recorded is dope and it’s all on their Bandcamp. Not to mention Our Guru is being pressed as 2XLP on white vinyl. WEEED is absolutely killing it.