HELLRIDE LOVES FLAME THE WHISPER!

ENJOY THIS LOVING REVIEW...

Matadors – Flame the Whisper (Devil Doll Records)
By Jay Snyder
June 4, 2007

This is the second release by Sweden’s Matadors and their debut for Devil Doll Records (their first album was only re-issued by Devil Doll). I really hadn’t heard anything about these guys until I put the disc in and gave them a listen for myself. What you get here is 16 songs of danceable, country-tinged stoner rock that jams out hard and delivers catchy anthems that are in the vein of the first Queens of the Stone Age record, Mammoth Volume’s “Single Book of Songs” and the red hot Monotonix (from Israel) with other influences tastefully rounding out the mix.

You can tell that these guys take a tongue-in- cheek approach to their style as shown by the song-titles and lyrics. The good thing is that they don’t take the humorous aspects into the actual music itself as this is a fun album to put in and rock out to with good musicianship and songs that you will want to listen to again. Nothing too heavy here, just fun rock and roll played by a trio of guys that obviously love what they are doing and are incorporating some influences not always tossed into this type of music.

“21st Century Monotony Disco” kicks things off with a hard driving stoner/punk anthem that is heavier than most of the material on here and comes packing groovy riffs, strong rhythms and a deep singing style that almost reminds me of Neil Fallon in some strange way with the quirkiness of the overall delivery. It is a singing style well suited to the music and vocalist Andreas has a knack for making every verse and chorus instantly catchy and something you’ll be singing along to once you got the words in your head.

“New Wave Coke” comes next sounding like a perfect combination of the better songs of the last three QOTSA records had they kept the influences of their earlier material more prevalent instead of branching out into completely different territories.

The rest of the record bounces all over the place and with a total of 16 tracks the Matadors are able to cover a lot of ground.

“The Duel” is a quick western tinged instrumental that is appropriately titled as the desolate beats and country twang give you the mindset of two gunslingers getting ready to pull out their irons and see who the better man is. This track leads perfectly into “Ahead of my Time” which keeps the western influences in tact but polishes them up with stoner rock sensibilities that kick up a dust storm of punchy riffs and twitchy rhythms that are once again danceable and something unique for the genre.

Influences like these would come off as being far too contrived in the hands of a lesser band but the Matadors manage to deliver catchy songs while still retaining a certain amount of grit for the type of grooves they lay down.

Other highlights include the guitar twang and Mexican flavor of “Like a Matador Pt. 1” which features the album’s best chorus and lyrical hooks, the country fried stoner/pop of “The Luscious Cabaret” which has some of the coolest guitar licks on the entire album and the mini epic “Ode to L & G” which almost sounds like Witchcraft’s “Her Sister they were Weak” at times had the band added outlaw country influences to their distinct Sabbath/Tull groove on that particular track.

This is a surprising release all around. I had never heard about these guys before and this record turned out to be a damn good listen, through and through. Maybe not one for fans of strictly the really heavy stuff but for everyone else that can appreciate something not traveling the beaten path, “Flame the Whisper” is certainly worth a try.

There are a couple of tracks that slightly miss the mark but out of 16 tunes the hit to miss ratio here is a lot better than it has any right to be and even the tracks that don’t set me on fire still have redeeming qualities to them. A solid release all around and I’ll be on the lookout for their first album based on the strength of this one.