Metal Mind 2014
Devil’s Share
Giving the Horny One his due on their seventh studio son, Polish stoners rock the joint.
Here’s a band who don’t pander to fads but plough their furrow deeper into the ground, and the muddier it gets the better. “Devil’s Share” gives a fair cut to the pounding heaviness and swampy blues, although it slips on some humorous ground. There’s savage energy in the likes of “Story Of Things That Should Not Be” yet it’s harmonies – guitar ones, courtesy of Daniel Lechmanski and Peter Rutkos, and vocal, when the two support bassist Peter Anoit’s voice – that the quartet excel in. More so, how often do you hear such a tasty, and rather fast, harmonica as in “Traveller Blues” on a metal album?
Thanks to this approach, sliding into the sleazy licks of “Grime Whorehouse” or acoustic instrumental “Trespasstellers” feels like homecoming for the traditionalists. It doesn’t take a purist anyway to balk at injecting DIO‘s “Holy Diver” into a STEPPENWOLF perennial with a prospect of delivering the dull “Born To Be Zakk Wylde”: for all its hilarious familiarity, it pales against the folk-shot opener “Hang ‘N’ Over” that rides a frenetic riff and a handclaps-propelled powerful roar. To end it all, epic “Moment Of Truth” offers a molten revelation of sound, but while it might not be enough for a truly diabolical entertainment, there’s a fair share of fun.
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