Coping with the Urban Coyote

Unida is the third band of the best stoner vocalist in the world - John Garcia. He is also called "Voice Of Stoner". John has sung in three other high-quality stoner bands, of which Kyuss achieved the biggest commercial success. Of course commercial as for a stoner band... "Coping With The Urban Coyote" is one of the best stoner metal CDs, but it hasn't gained big popularity. Unfortunately for John Garcia, this stuff isn't produced now, I've seen two or three copies only on internet auctions. On the other hand, the staunchest fans of stoner music with John Garcia on vocals can legally download Unida music from the Internet. But where is the pleasure of having an original CD then? What a bad luck...

"Coping With The Urban Coyote" is opened by "Thorn". Maybe this is one of the easiest riffs ever played, but...what a great song it is! A very good opening. Two following tracks have this high quality of riffs too - a very fast "Black Woman" and "Plastic" with an impressive slower part. The fourth track is - in my opinion - one of the best stoner songs ever. The riff from "Human Tornado" will always lead to speeding and higher tickets - right foot pushes the gas pedal immediately! This is the song from which I suggest to start listening Unida. Dependable stoner riffs, strong stoner bass, very melodic solos and Johnny's vocal - this is Unida. The next track is one of my favourites, too. "If Only Two" starts with a very strong bass, followed by the drums. Finally, a solid riff and astonishing Garcia's vocal full of emotions join in. Next two tracks sound a bit... happier than the fifth. Slower and slacker "Nervous" and faster "Dwarf It". The CD ends with a beautiful metal ballad "You Wish" - one of the best songs to listen to at night, especially while driving on a running through the desert wide road. In this song we hear a strong, slow bass, amazing guitar effects and a beautiful Johnny's voice. This CD’s finale is the most amazing stoner ending I've ever heard...

As you can see, I must rate this CD as more than 95 %. "Coping With The Urban Coyote" is one of the best stoner albums and one of the most unappreciated metal CDs ever. If you give this CD less than 50 %, you must be very demanding listener who is very hard to satisfy. So just take your car on a desert and listen to it, leaving all your worries behind, smoking a small joint. Stoner 4life!

Unida’s first album, Coping With The Urban Coyote is quite a disappointment. John Garcia is a kick-ass vocalist as always, but he seems to have lost personality, emotion and inspiration this time. It’s one of his lamer efforts. Otherwise we have some signs of the stagnation stoner metal was in around 2000. So what are these signs? Well, we do have repetitive, monotonous drums, weak, repetitive bass and a guitar player repeating the same stupid riff over and over again. And then he repeats it a few more times, just in case. Meh, this is more repetitious than that German teaching television program my teachers keep on showing. And being more repetitious than that, is quite an accomplishment.

Not only do the musicians repeat themselves within one song, no all the album is one long repetition. The songs blend into each other, as it was one single, very long song consisting of the same riff being repeated into eternity. One grows tired of it before getting halfway through the record. This is not on par with anything that Mr Garcia has done in Kyuss, and way worse than the Slo Burn EP. The music is just slightly faster than Queens of the Stone Age but it’s more metal though. The production isn’t too bad but emphasises a little too much on the guitars. So how about originality? Well, the songs sound very much like Kyuss’ worst material. It wouldn’t surprise me if they were rejected outtakes just put on disc to make some money. Either way, stay away from this one.