Back in 2016 I reviewed a Truckfighters record and became the only reviewer in history (I assume) to describe them as being “Fuzzier than Fuzzy Felt”. Now I’m 10 years older, no wiser and the Swedes still sound the same.
Thank Lemmy for that.
Because Truckfighters are one of those bands who have long since worked out what they do and then decided to do it better than pretty much anyone else. No intro. No fuss. Just prime fuzz. But that undersells it, really, because there’s melody in this as well as a whole Kyuss record collection, and “Masterflow” proves yet again that these Swedes understand the difference between being loud and being good.
The label blurb talks about dynamics, heaviness and psychedelic passages, and for once that isn’t just someone in an office reaching for the usual phrases. This really does shift and breathe. It has proper low-end weight, but it also knows when to let a groove hang in the air, when to let a riff circle round your head for a while, and when to make things feel just a little bit strange.
“Old Big Eye” somehow manages not to sound modern at all, which is meant here as the highest compliment. It is basically a study in riffs, the sort of thing that feels beamed in from a parallel universe where people never stopped worshipping at the altar of groove. “The Bliss” is where that unsettling side starts to creep in. Truckfighters have always been good at that. Even at their most direct, there’s often something eerie buried in the corners, and this one builds with that sense of menace lurking just beneath the surface.
“Carver” is the sound of a band trusting the jam. The songs meander a little, but in the way the best heavy psychedelic music does, where somewhere in the drifting about they stumble on gold. Elder do that brilliantly, and Truckfighters have that same knack here. They know how to let a passage unfold without sounding indulgent. Then “Truce” arrives with the sort of understatement that only a really confident band can pull off. They don’t need to scream for attention. They know they’ve got you already.
The title track adds a bit more energy and a bit more bite, almost tipping into metal without ever losing that loose-limbed desert-rock strut. “The Gorgon” lurks, menaces and then strikes, while “Bad Horse” pushes things further into more psychedelic, more interesting territory. By the time “Goin’ Home” rolls around, it feels like two halves of the same song have been stitched together by people who know exactly how to make repetition feel hypnotic rather than lazy.
And that is the whole point of Truckfighters, really. They are fuzzing great. Always have been, always will. “Masterflow” doesn’t reinvent them, and why should it? This is a band who somehow manage to make the same core ingredients sound fresh simply by being so completely locked in to what they are. Ten years on from “Fuzzier than Fuzzy Felt”, the line still fits. So do they.
RATING: 8/10
