Ballads of the Godless

Stoner has become one of my go-to genres this past year or so. There’s a ton of garbage like any other style, but I find most of what comes out at least listenable. The emphasis on heavy riffs help practitioners tread water where other styles can completely lose me below a certain quality threshold. 1968 hails from Britain which stuck out to me because of the excellent Sergeant Thunderhoof album that also came out this year playing the same style from the same homeland. The name and album cover referencing that famous era also caught my eye and suggested something more than your typical fare.

The best of 1968’s sound is a standard stoner formula of slower songs, heavy riffs, and plenty of fuzz. The music is comparatively mild, none of the extremity of certain groups such as classic Electric Wizard will be heard. The vocals sound suitably detached yet angry when they need to be. There’s a snarling, almost raspy quality at times to them that works well on the second track. For a reference, I think a hazier Kyuss is what fits best. The vocals are further back, and the music is fuzzier, but that basic template is at play. As one of my favorite stoner bands, there is nothing displeasing about reminding me of Kyuss, and the sound is not so derivative as to annoy me. The first three songs and bits of later tracks follow this and are often the strongest for it.

The problem comes with what occupies the album’s runtime elsewhere. Some missteps are modest, the first instrumental number for example. Track four is a brief, folky instrumental that does not appeal to me but is too short to be of great consequence either. Of slighter greater significance is the final track which is also instrumental yet does nothing previous tracks did. A retread instrumental is perhaps the worst kind, as it simply tires the listener of the formula itself. These two mistakes are blatant but do not submerge the album. A subtler error is found towards the middle and end of the album where they tweak their formula for something else. The music and vocals become more distant, the pace slows, and the heaviness is dialed down. The music becomes more psychedelic and subdued and less of a proper stoner record. This does not ruin the album, but it does move the band away from what they did well towards something that does not appeal to me in the same way.

I enjoyed this album on my first listen. It’s easy to listen to an album with other things happening, perhaps out running, and only really soak in the parts that you enjoy. In this case, it is compounded by the fact that the album is, in effect, frontloaded. From there, good stoner gives way to decent psychedelia. Some bands do a fine job of combining the two styles, but I am not hearing it on this release. The support of heavy riffs is partially removed, and the band’s songwriting is only enough to maintain a passable quality throughout much of the rest of the album. This is a decent album, but it is not Sergeant Thunderhoof who themselves manage to successfully weave in a psychedelic component. Fans of stoner will have heard worse this year and psychedelic fans may find more to enjoy here than I, but I cannot truly recommend this.