Generous Maria

Electricism

Buzzville Records

Generous Maria is a stoner rock band from Gothenburg, surprising me in a positive way with their sophomore album ‘Electricism’, one of these days released by the eminent stoner rock label from Belgium Buzzville. The band exists since 1998 and released earlier a split EP with Skua, the debut album ‘Command Of The New Rock’ (initially released by Lunasound Records, but at the end of last year re-released with extra tracks by Buzzville) and a self-released 7” vinyl single ‘Crawl Back In’.

Last weekend I had the opportunity to check out the band live and it was a groovy party. But I expected it, because ‘Electricism’ brims with pre-eminent songs that make you fall in love with this record from the very beginning. Just take the opening track ‘The Chilling Effect’. Steady rock with hard edged attitude and ditto voice of Göran Florstrom, in which the fairly spatial guitar sounds pass into recognizable infectious riffs. Generous Maria knows how to write fetching melodies with challenging lyrics with an ever present semblance of sensuality. This is especially featured in the more trailing tracks such as ‘Slit-Eyed Lizard’ and the open flirt with Monster Magnet called ‘She’s Got Plans For Me’ which sends its low-tuned underwater sounds fluttering through the musical universe. Totally fitting in the entire atmosphere is the ZZ Top cover ‘Precious And Grace’ for which Christian Smedstrm (The Awesome Machine) entered the studio for a moment to add some extra guitar fireworks. Except for the fact that this album is a concatenation of heavy groove-laden songs that yield not to each other, I would like to mention the occluding ‘Li’l Crisis Of Mine’ as another favourite. Here the band once again finds a perfect balance between building up tension, sensuality and swallow the bait again. Nothing but praise for ‘Electricism’ indeed, an album produced by guitarist Dan Johansson and mastered at The Mastering Room by Göran Finnberg (e.g. Spiritual Beggars, Opeth, The Quill, Blind Dog, The Haunted…). Be sure to come over when the band plans a more extensive tour in autumn!

Review by Vera

Rating: 9/10