Another day, another excellent Small Stone Records release. If you’ve been following my adventures with this excellent label, you’ll already know what to expect here. Namely, fuzz and lots of it. And, indeed, Black Elephant‘s Akira Kurosawa influenced release, Seven Swords, does not disappoint on that front. From the sleek cover art through the excellent guitar tone and all the way to the kick ass compositional groove, Seven Swords is everything you need to beat that summer bummer. Wait, am I only the one who has that? In any case, summer bummer or not, scroll down below for the full album (that’s right!) and plenty of riffs, solos, and rocking tunes.
This album has so much to choose from but I think I’ll focus on the third track, “Yayoi Kusama”, one of the more immediately groovy and arresting tracks on the album. This makes sense considering it’s named for one of the most interesting and boundary-pushing contemporary Japanese artists. Back to the track though: it kicks off with this standalone guitar part, quickly joined by a second guitar track and punchy drums, that does a great job of showcasing the great tone that’s used throughout the release. The riff that quickly shambles to life following the introduction of the other guitar track and the drums is simply killer, equal part punch and swift agility. Add in the prominent bass, and vocals which remind us of Neil Fallon’s early urgency and verve and you’ve got yourself a sound.
The rest of the album continues down these lines, delivering line after line fo excellent stoner rock. If you like what you hear here, make sure to click on through to the band’s Bandcamp and pre-order the full thing; it releases on August 21st.