Generous Maria - Electricism (Buzzville Records)

Due to internet-problems, I wasn’t able to look anything up on Generous Maria. So you’ll have to settle with whatever I heard.

And that’s not too bad. Opener “The Chilling Effect” made me think of a weird combination of voice reminding me of Layne Staley in Alice in Chains’ “Facelift”-era, on a Kyuss-like groove. The best of both worlds, isn’t it? But only a while further in the album, “All Wrong Alright”, sounds like an older Hellacopters-song with rougher vocals. Next up is “Precious and Grace”, a blues-tinged rock song, while the intro for “Slit-eyed Lizard” could’ve been on a Monster Magnet or Kyuss album. When either of them were in their heydays. “Out of my Head” is probably one of the lesser tracks, going to the Motörhead-kind of rock ‘n roll, but on their slower and weaker songs. And that’s a pity, since the other ten songs all pass my “mediocrity”-mark easily.

There you have it. Generous Maria gets influences from the better rock acts from the nineties, flavored with some Zeppelin or –following the rhythm- even Deep Purple’s “Easy Living” (or anything from the “Machine Head” LP) with slight touches of blues and rock ‘n roll to spice it all up a little. Works for me.

Christophe

7.5/10