"Acid" is right. Practically every cut on San Fran neanderthud trio Acid King's third full-length opens very gradually, just like the tentative onset of an LSD trip. Ditto the full-sensory explosion that inevitably follows, smacking you into psycho-physical submission. Subscribing to a low-end theory similar to the Melvins, Sleep and Electric Wizard, the band — guitarist Lori S. (who was once married to the Melvins' Dale Crover), drummer Joey Osbourne and bassist Guy Pinhas — unfurls bass-heavy slo-mo riffs then proceeds to brutalize them while Lori wails like some distaff Ozzy teetering on the precipice of a breakdown. In the Sabbath-styled grind of "On to Everafter," the singer even seems ready to succumb to the final void when she shudders "the end comes closer/closer to the light." The record's centerpiece is the 12-minute "War of the Mind," its sludgeadelic churn sucking the listener down into a no-escape black hole where one might find Hawkwind lurking. (Hold that thought: The group previously contributed to a Hawkwind tribute album, the track "Motorhead" subsequently popping up as a bonus cut on Small Stone's reissue of the 1999 Acid King album Busse Woods.) Don't worry, though; while claustrophobia may set in, it's guaranteed to be a good kind of freakout.
Fred Mills writes about music for Metro Times. Send comments to [email protected].
