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Generous Maria

Electricism

Buzzville Records


I'm going to be writing this review basically as someone who's never
heard Generous Maria before. I believe I have their split with Skua
kicking around somewhere but obviously that didn't make too much of an
impression on me at the time. Not to say that it isn't any good, just
that I may not have been in the mood for it or number of lame reasons I
can come up with. Having said that I'm sure as hell going to revisit it
after listening to their latest release Electricism. I also hear that
this is a fairly big departure from their previous albums in that it's
a lot more straight forward rock and not as much "stoner".

Ok, enough with that shit and let's get to the point of this review.

Right off the bat they start at full speed and all cylinders blazing
with The Chilling Effect. I tell ya, this song is worse that crack. The
first time I played it I was hooked and their was no looking back. Get
your own pipe man because I'm going to be sucking on this one for a
long time. Simple but very effective drumming is overlayed with some
sweet ass fuzzy guitars. Goran's unique vocals is outstanding and he
has no problems keeping up with everyone else. This is pretty damn
close to a perfect rock song.

Sheer Violence is next, and for me brings back some fond memories of
the best that came out of the 80's. Not that it's blatantly obvious but
probably has something to do with me seeing them play a packed arena
and rocking the fuck out. It's not quite up there with The Chilling
Effect in the drink 'till you puke kind of song but still delivers.

The one song that I think will polarize their listeners is the cover
of ZZ Tops - Precious And Grace. I'll go on a limb here and declare
that Precious is ZZ Tops best song period. Yup, you heard it alright....
that was my foot dropping. No more room for discussion. So I was kind
of concerned when I saw this cover. I know some will love it and some
will hate it. Mostly because they really do put their own spin on it
and since it's not a true to form cover, it will probably piss a few
people off. Fuck 'em I say because I'm really liking it. I mean, who
can argue with the pure bliss that emotes from those chunky guitars and
heartfelt vocal delivery. Yeah, that's what I thought.

Before this review gets too long I'm going to end it with another
devastatingly good song. That being Bootlicker. Yeah baby, we're
running on airplane fuel now. Dynamically it's quite a bit different
from Chilling Effect but rocks just as hard. Dual guitars driving the
rhythm along with the bass and Mats going ape shit on the drums. Goran
once again does an amazing job on the vocals, covering a lot more range
than in previous songs. I'd love to be able to describe his singing
style properly but the words escape me. A bit gruff, but oddly enough
has a real clarity to it that I'm really enjoying. Just fucking
stellar.

In one respect I'm afraid of playing this cd too often. Mostly because
I always have a urge to turn up the volume and I don't know how much
more my stereo can take. Of course not all the songs can live up to the
ones I've reviewed. Then again there are songs that are just as good
that I haven't even touched (All Wrong Alright for example). So for
anyone who misses good old days of rock and roll that almost
necessitates consuming large quantities of alcohol (among other things)
than this should be your next purchase. Right from the get go this cd
had me by the balls and I think my girlfriend is getting a bit
jealous.

/Drifter

 

 

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