It’s actually quite awesome that Sweden seems to be pumping out some surprisingly high-quality stoner and punk bands at a pretty good clip lately, and not only that, these groups seem to be doing pretty well for themselves as far as getting exposure and press, playing a shitload of gigs, and generally making for a refreshing change of pace. The truth is, Sweden has had a pretty strong stoner/punk scene for a while now, but the bands just haven’t been met with as much worldwide acclaim as the more accomplished death and thrash metal acts. I’d love to see The Accidents get huge.

Blending a sultry mix of southern groove, and mid-80’s mainstream rock with a touch of early 90’s alternative rock, ‘Gravity X’ has served as my introduction to the Truckfighters , and I can’t say that I’m disappointed to meet their acquaintance. At once reminding me of The Cult, and a less focused Corrosion Of Conformity, this is honestly a hard one to handle for a number of reasons from a review standpoint, even though i’m personally all over this album like stink on shit.

There’s not a damn thing wrong with writing an album that clocks in at over an hour long, as long as every minute of said album has something to say, whether it be mellow, intense, or just flat-out rocking for the hell of it. 67 minutes, and thirteen tracks is an awful long time for a fuzzed-out stoner album to keep rolling. The main problem is that ‘Gravity X’ is entirely too long, especially considering many minutes could have been shaved off individual tracks such as ‘Freewheelin’’, ‘Manhattan Project’, and the lead-off ‘Desert Cruiser’ among others, and not really detract from the songs as a whole at all.

Make no mistake, these guys know how to assemble a great song when they want to as ‘In Search Of (The)’ contains the catchiest riff on the album which pops in around 2 minutes into the song, and serves as an excellent bridge toward it’s spirited ending. Likewise, ‘A. Zapruder’ is another more direct rocker with a lot of thick, chunky, and aggressively performed southern-styled powerchords. These moments of in-your-face songwriting are a little too sparse for my liking, but when they do it, they do it hard and heavy.

The majority of ‘Gravity X’ sounds like an extended studio jam session of sorts, and if that was the intention, it was a rousing success. A few of the more spaced-out passages ring slightly of Sublime without the ska leanings, picking up guitar riffs and harmonies that wouldn’t sound out of place on many surfer-rock albums. The first half of the album isn’t as strong as the second half, and again, this is where the daunting length is a bit of a detriment. Unless you have the full 67 minutes and 18 seconds to listen to ‘Gravity X’ without interruption or distraction, then you really won’t be able to properly absorb the album the way it was intended.

Two final points lie with the vocals, and the production. The guitar sound is immaculate, the drums are locked down tight and have a nice snap and crack to their tone, and the bass sounds warm and fuzzy like a bearskin rug in front of a roaring fireplace. The production values of stoner rock albums don’t usually make a huge difference, whether it’s on the more polished, or raw side, because the riffs and vocals pretty much dictate the quality of the disc, but the sounds captured on ‘Gravity X’ are excellent. It’s a little sad that the vocals didn’t figure more prominently into the picture, because they’re quite ballsy and powerful, but should have been utilized a little better in order to help separate the tracks from one another. Next time around, I hope they capitalize on having such a strong voice to help carry and situate the music to better effect.

For those of us who really eat this stuff up with a spoon and fork, this is some seriously good eats, but the servings are just a little too heaping, and the dessert takes a little too long to get to the table. The trimming of 10-15 minutes would have made for a more satisfying meal, and left a much better impression after it was over for those who might not be too keen on epic stoner rock that is more alt-punk than it is doom. I’ll definitely be keeping an ear out for more about these four party guys, and if they ever schedule a gig in Chicago, consider me there and partying with them already. I’d better plan on bringing a few full spare lighters with me.

This entry was posted by Dekompoze on Tuesday, 21st February, 2006 at 21:33 and is filed under Reviews, Truckfighters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response below. You may view a   printable version of this page. You may download this page in   PDF format.