Andrew Danso

They might sound like Sabbath, grimy and stoner like, but Trippy Wicked roar into life on their self titled track Going Home. It's an indication of what the album feels like. Yes, the production might reflect earlier times but "Going Home" is an energetic affair, flirting with the Sabbath sound and rocking like Queen's of The Stone Age.

Similar to their record labels first release “Stubb”, Going Home is an album characterised by imperfections. The choppy takes of vocalist Peter Holland, make for a raw performance, sometimes hitting the notes, and sometimes just growling through a riff. It keeps everything focused in a vintage era, even when the riffing occasionally veers into the modern and progressive. 

The more subtle, proggy moments, help them avoid pastiche and with the greatest intentions, set them apart from what's kicking around in the underground. That's not to say there's nothing derivative throughout the record. Quite the contrary; the stoner love-in has been echoed countless of times for better and for worse.

Trippy Wicked are in love with the Sabbath theme, and the rock-rebellion lifestyle that might come with it. If you sample "Going Home's" tracks, “I want Another Drink”, and “Pour Me Another One”, they're written about times that are cliched within the genre. That's fair enough, after all the very genre to express emotions about being stoned is in something 'stoner', but it might be more interesting if the three-piece wrote while being inebriated, instead of documenting the process while being sober.

Ultimately, Trippy Wicked have an album alight in production, but stuttering in content. It makes for an album that's only half full.

This is Superhot Records first punt, and it’s convincing. While it’s far too early to see if the label will pigeonhole a niche, Stubb are certainly a worthy selection in dirt-rock quality. This is an album harking back to those vintage pubs and clubs dedicated to the sounds of Sabbath and Hendrix, drenched in the wails of bluesy feedback and its evergreen psychedelia.

The self-titled, ‘Stubb’, is a quaint exercise in imperfection, embodied by a vintage recording. It feels as if you’re in a grimy, smoke filled room with the trio, as they spontaneously jam through the uppers and downers of 70s rock, brightened by their psychedelic and explosive choruses.

This is a fairly brisk and messy affair that’s made fun in its reminiscence for the simple sounding old school, and thankfully, the record has been put together without copying guitar tabs of Osbourne infused rock - Stubb’s own stamp on the material pays homage to the oldies instead of blindly ripping them off. Track, “Scale The Mountain” bobbles along its driven choruses before bubbling up into a widescreen, spectacular Wylde-like chorus, while “Hard Hearted Woman” is close to a disorientated “Voodoo Child” that slows deliriously down into a drunken blues lull. “Galloping Horses” is Stubb at their most aggressive, and notably most captivating; structurally, it sticks out like a sore thumb, and unlike that of the 70s period pieces which came before it, this is the one tune they’ll reside an identity in. It’s a powerful, stompy finish to the album. Edgy and angsty in its blues chugging, yet suitable for a headbang to the pace of Kyuss.

Stubb aren’t a band to wreck with your soul. Sure, they do trip themselves up every now and then, but there’s enough standout material on playback to make the crumples worth your effort. They’ll definitely provide the oldies dancing around the perch with a good time, while sounding modern enough for newcomers alike, to jump on their bandwagon.

8/10 http://www.superhotrecords.com/