No, baby, not the Taliban Sessions, this is no terror-rock record. What we've got here is a loose configuration of Norwegian Super-rockers- members of Black Debbath, the Cumshots, Thulsa Doom, and the Oslo Motherfuckers, among others- freaking freely in El Doom's studio. Think of it as a "Desert Sessions", only with no desert, just frozen tundras and plenty of that fucked up Scandinavian liquor that makes you go blind if you drink it too fast. And unlike Kyuss and pals, these cats ain't a bunch of pot-smoking hippies, so there's no stoner-jazz on display. There are bongos, though. Opener "Your Hair used to be as Black (as my Bloodshot Eyes)" couldn't possibly be as good as it's title, and it's not, but it lays down a nice bed of hard charging freedom rock accented with boss WAR percussion. Elsewhere, "Rebellion Riders of a New Generation" sounds like Lou Reed jamming with Mike Monroe and Aerosmith, "Little Hippie Girl" is a soaring powerpop track with an insane new wave keyboard banging away in the background and a Rick Springfield (!) guitar solo, "The Genuine Caliban Grooves" is an organ drenched slice of super-soul power, heavy on the groove and peppered with a goddamn flute, "Ride that Bullet Train" is rip-snorting arena grunge, and the epic closer "God Stood Me Up" is every stoner rock song ever written, played all at once. The Caliban Sessions is like being on a subway train that stops in a different country every three minutes. It's exhausting and exotic, and like nothing you'd expect from a gang full of fuzz metal pushers and blood drinking death n' rollers. Unless you expected flutes.