Nashville band swap the cowboy hats for the Astronaut ….ermmm ….helmets?
It probably won’t come as news to you that this EP has little interest with things that occur on earth. That’s far too boring, it seems, when you can look to the skies.
What might surprise you, however, is this. This trio (and for god’s sake don’t get me started again on my belief that yer three-piece always rules all) are from Nashville, Tennessee.
That town surely is supposed to be about country and indeed western come to that, not a band, who in their own words: “ is what happens when 3 nerds write about space travel”.
But whatever, leave your expectations at the door, because this is superb.
If modern day Mastodon got together with Crobot, added some Monster Truck style Hammond Organ and Elder’s gift for writing something fuzzy and glorious, then to be honest, it’d probably sound a little like this.
And if that sounds like your bag, baby (and if it doesn’t you probably have the wrong website) you’ll find plenty to get stuck into here.
The quartet of songs – and all actually have the strange trait of being a lot shorter and less sprawling than you think they might be – kicks off with “Mothership” with those Mastodon-isms really to the far, continue their journey through the mighty riff driven groove of “Exodus Earth” which adds a more doomy kick to the psych band you suspect they’d become at the drop of a hat and disembarks with the longest thing here, the seven minute, trippy epic of “Clouds Of Smoke”.
It’s the other track here that suggests that there is a lot more to Howling Giant, though, “Dirtmouth” is genuinely heavy and with a piercing, screeching guitar and gives a hint that Howling Giant could be just about anything they wanted to be.
All of which means that part two could be very special indeed – mind you, part one was a hell of a start.
Rating 8/10
