 After
a flurry of bitchin’ EP’s and comp appearances, Pilotos finally let
it all hang out on a full length. Opener “Part of the Evil” has all
the smooth, Latino-flecked groove of early Santana, but don’t let
it fool ya- they start cracking skulls soon after. These Stockholm
thundermakers score big on this heaving wallop of shamelessly macho
mustache metal. Mercifully, ‘stoner rock’ is going the way of all
lumbering dinosaurs, and all the bands that were leaning in that direction
are mutating into virulent new Super Rock strains, and fuck, I couldn’t be
happier. Pot is for hippies, after all. Pilotos appear to be one of the
bright lights of this burgeoning post-stoner movement, and they fire on
all barrels with this 8 track assault. Their sound is early 70’s
sledgehammer groove roughed up in a flurry of metallized riffage, laced
with snarky humor, and smoothed out with a heady dose of vapor trail
psychedelia. Sure, there’s traces of Kyuss in their sound, but they
eschew the desert-jam stuff in favor of actual songs- big, meaty,
roof-rattling odes to their dicks with memorable choruses and spacey
solos. They’re funny fuckers too, which is a nice surprise. “Green
Queen” has a chanting chorus that says either “Orgasmic princess” or
“Organic waitress” over and over, which is pretty cool no matter which one
it is, and the first line of “Set” (As in ‘”Set fire to this”)
is “I wake up with a hard-on all the time”. Ain’t that the goddamn truth.
Listen, if you dig gigantic riffs and manly rock and roll- and you do, I
know you do- crack this one open. It’s the real deal. |