Maneuvers

Another day, another stoner album. Sasquatch sits solidly on the line between stoner rock and stoner metal. They have a more conventional rocking vibe than a straight up metal band, but are still heavy enough to earn their way onto this site. Within Maneuvers you'll find many of the staples of the genre in spades. Extremely rhythmic riffs, the omnipresent crackle of fuzz, bluesy soloing, it's all here, except perhaps constant references to weed, but I'm hardly going to complain about that. I also just want to note that I love the album cover. The contrast of the normally colored visor against the red tinted background works wonderfully.

Sadly, that's about all I can really complement the album on. It's not bad, if it were I'd rate it somewhere below 50%, but it's really not anything remarkable either. If you've listened to stoner metal, you've heard this all before. As I listened to this, occasionally a guitar lick or a vocal melody would catch my attention, but rarely was there anything that made me want to go back for another listen. So much of it is just the same stoner instrumentation that I've heard countless times before. I realize that this isn't exactly a genre renowned for its variety, but it's still possible to make fun music that isn't particularly original. This however is largely forgettable. It's a shame, because in many ways Sasquatch avoid falling into tedious stoner cliches. Their name can't be used in a game of stoner bingo, they seem to have put effort into writing lyrics that aren't just drug references, and their album art has a decently unique look to it.

The only thing that really stands out about them musically, perhaps because I listen to more stoner metal than stoner rock, is the vocals. Keith Gibbs delivers a vocal performance that is straight out of hard rock, so he does much to break up the monotony found here. You can tell he's putting in serious effort to give a solid vocal performance. However, it's not really enough to make the album memorable in any way, and I can't say that I find his voice to be much better than passable.

Ultimately, I think I could only recommend this to die hard stoner fans. If you really love this genre, then this is exactly the kind of thing that you enjoy. However, if you're not as intensely interested in stoner rock/metal, then you can give this a pass. There's more interesting and unique stoner bands out there that'll catch your attention. It's certainly not a bad album, so you won't have an unpleasant time listening to Maneuvers. You just won't feel like repeating it.

L.A. heavy stoner rockers Sasquatch are stomping back with new album Maneuvers – released on June 20th 2017 via their own imprint, Mad Oak Records – and their 70’s metal, rock and psychedelia meets Soundgarden and Corrosion of Conformity (circa Deliverance) is as mythically addictive as ever.

With more fuzz than Jim Henson’s Workshop, Maneuvers is a riff-addicts wet dream made flesh as Sasquatch bash their way through a concise set of tunes that deliver maximum impact with minimal histrionics. While firmly in stoner metal/rock territory, Sasquatch have noticeably stripped back the jams while still kickin’ ’em out, sounding more focused than ever and the result is an unstoppable beast of an album. There isn’t an ounce of fat on Maneuvers and any urge to meander through meaningless minutes of reverb (as is the want of many bands in the genre) has been jettisoned in favour of a more considered approach. It works, as Maneuvers is an instant and insistent winner.

With a voice that croons and hollers like an amalgamation of Trent Reznor and Chris Cornell (RIP), vocalist Keith Gibbs sounds magnificent throughout and no more so than on the highly emotive final track, “Window Pain”. Bridging the gap between psychedelic stoner rock and a good old fashioned rock ballad, this closing salvo ups the drama without losing sight of what makes Sasquatch so damn endearing….and that’s the power of a fuzzed-the-fuck-up, time honoured riff!

This power-trio have scored big with Maneuvers, scaling a consistent body of work (5 albums now and counting since 2004’s self titled debut) that’s steadily been building to this moment. The result is a paean to 70’s psych rock and classic Sabbath riffs fed through an early 90’s grunge grinder led by the indomitable Soundgarden. Outstanding.

Originally published on worshipmetal.com