No matter how many times we hear it come through the pipeline, we should never take for granted the refreshing sound of heavy metal in its pure, unadulterated, irony-devoid form. No longer required to be couched by necessity in the trappings of “industrial” music, metal has once again become a viable musical form, and in many ways is the current darling/idiom du jour of the indie-rock world. Having sprung from the ashes of doom/post-hardcore outfit Old Man Gloom, Zozobra are a remarkably tight, hook-laden stoner metal band hailing from the high desert climes of New Mexico. Named after an annual semi-paganistic and strangely idiosyncratic autumn ritual, Zozobra (in which a 50-foot effigy, itself named Old Man Gloom, is burned during Santa Fe’s Fiestas de Santa Fe), the band perform a heavy and unapologetically pugnacious brand of music rife with the same unbridled energy as their namesake.
Harmonic Tremors, Zozobra’s debut long-player, is characterized by the histrionic, sub-Cookie-Monster screaming and melodic, eloquent bass guitar playing of Caleb Scofield (also the bassist of Cave In and Old Man Gloom, whose third album, incidentally, was entitled Seminar III: Zozobra). The record’s powerhouse drumming, courtesy of Old Man Gloom’s Santos Montaño, is technically precise and complex enough to make one question whether it is not, in fact, programmed. But what the record has going for it above and beyond its other virtues is an abundance of powerful and testosterone-charged guitar riffs, which, over the course of these 10 tracks (with titles such as “Levitator” and “Kill and Crush,” no less), propel the album with muscle-car ferocity. Scofield’s pedigree as a heavy metal bassist leaches into these tracks, which are informed by an unmistakable melodicism, enabling the listener to forgive Harmonic Tremors its more abrasive aspects.
But all the same, Scofield’s limitations as a bassist are manifest in the album’s evident dearth of guitar solos, which is no criticism in and of itself. Scofield’s point on the album is not to showcase hyperkinetic, cock-rock guitar theatrics, but rather to exploit his music’s strongest feature: the Riff. Even the vocals, despite their aggressive disposition, are buried in the mix somewhat, clearing the way for the rhythm guitar to take center stage. Scofields’s dense and meaty basslines are also the perfect foil for his muscular guitar chords, and when he opts to sing rather than scream, he proves himself to be a competent vocalist in his own right; more than capable of carrying these tracks, as on the album’s closer, the affecting “A Distant Star Fades.”
Harmonic Tremors’ opener, “The Blessing,” is the record’s most fully-realized piece, which is rather disadvantageous, as Harmonic Tremors plateaus, to some extent, after this track. Featuring thunderous drums, a driving, galvanic guitar hook, and dynamic vocal harmonies that alternate with Scofield’s screams, the song ends on a complex note with its groove-laden coda that finds the band’s balls factor cranked up to eleven. There’s nothing particularly progressive to be found within Zozobra’s relatively straightforward compositions, but if you’re looking for a devastatingly rocking album with enough attitude to evoke the Camaro rock days of yore, then Harmonic Tremors should fit the bill.
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