Truckfighters - Phi
Swedish 4-piece 'Truck Fighters' are fresh off their tour with Fu Manchu with their second only record 'Phi'.
After forming in 2000 'Truck Fighters' have emerged from the alternative rock scene with a whole lot of diverse musical influences and have offered us some very fine stoner rock grooves and serious chunky metal riffs.
The opening track 'Atomic' kick starts this record with a dirty, sludgy and altogether perfect stoner rock tune, drawing you in slowly, surely and smoothly until you've got halfway through the album without even realising.
Straight away I can see this album working perfectly with a bottle of deep southern whisky and a packet of cigarettes.
The vocals drained in distortion and echo, are sung with that distinctive stoner drool. That lazy and so utterly cool laid back fashion. It's the heavier side to Queens of The Stone Age, the songs might not be as catchy yet but they've got plenty of time to catch up and perfect this, but for a second release they're more than on the right lines.
'Truck Fighters' are the perfect heavy, with bass full and thick, crashing drums, rhythms that drive and riffs that reverberate loud, thick and fast. The gentle and chilled atmospheric moments separate from the driving rhythms adding not only dynamic contrasts but tempo and melodic contrasts also. It keeps it interesting, and it keeps it cool. Although 'Phi' has distinct separate tracks they seem to blend easily together as one, due to the lack of verse-chorus-verse division. The tracks may be unconventional in that sense but they are definitely enjoyable for what they are. Sometimes long passages of sludgy rhythms, and sometimes soothing melodic vocal passages, alternating between the two in and endless stream of dirty noise.
I must also give a nod to the production on this record, as it appears to place everything in the right place and has resulted in one very high quality release for a relatively unknown band. For a second release you know they've found something that works and works well.
Even those who don't particularly like the stoner genre, I would advise on giving Truck Fighters a listen. 'Phi' has an incredibly mature sound, is incredibly chilled and yet still pulls of that hard metal edge. They've definitely got something about them that stands out and I have no doubt they're going to be pushing stoner rock back into the limelight.