For the last 15 years, Swedish trio Truckfighters have built up a solid fanbase (which includes Josh Homme), and a reputation for high-octane jinks and fuzz-driven, balls-to-the-wall rock’n’ roll. While their hefty slabs of sun-caked desert rock have been sculpted and chiselled into new shapes, Dango, Ozo and El Danno have always retained their stoner spirit.
2014’s sky-filling Universe broke new ground with the trippy, labyrinth-like Mastodont and sprawling riff-odyssey The Chairman.
Their fifth album is less progressive, but quick to reveal its deliciously frazzled charms. Brooding opener Calm Before The Storm works the balance between melody and groove as wrecking-ball riffs unfurl from a red-eyed haze while not only is The 1 the album’s heaviest track, it also sounds like Fu Manchu in a dive bar drinking glitter cocktails with Monster Magnet. Sadly, elsewhere there are meandering moments, disappointing for an album of only seven songs and for a band so capable of sledge-hammer precision.
