Half Is All You Need

Half Gramme of Soma ~ Marche au Noir (2014)

After their self-titled release from last year, they shouldn't need much of an introduction as that should have done all the talking for them, but the five piece Half Gramme of Soma are a heart liquifying Stoner Rock strike to the chest for those of you who aren't familiar. While those of you that know who this band is are probably collectively rolling your eyes at my simplistic labeling of them, they are a whole hell of a lot more than your fly by night, Kyuss clone of a Stoner Rock band. Pulling from Grunge, Sludge, Stoner Rock, and Doom Metal they kind of throw it all together, and the resulting concoction is a new but comfortably familiar sound that is hard to pull yourself away from, and like a good whiskey, it hits all the right marks going down. While the first of the five tracks "Marche" is pretty much a straight forward Stoner Rock track that is full of groove, but not exactly anything new. When you get to the second track, "Seeking Shelter" you're presented with a completely different animal. This track is dark, heavy, and mired in more sludge than a swamp. After opening with a slow guitar part, the vocals come in and create a sort of spectral veil over the guitar for a bit before the rest of the band drops in. This is really the point that it becomes a dark, sludgy beast of a song, reminding me of Hangman's Chair a good bit. The guitars with their distorted, foreboding tone attempting to gnaw its way out of the speaker, the bass rumbling along with its rounded, punchy tone, the drums sounding like not-so distant cannon fire, and finally the vocal performance is powerful and melodic, but often edged with a certain rawness, and it all comes together to create one of the heaviest and sludgiest Stoner Rock songs I've ever heard, a work of art. While all five tracks are top notch tunes, this is the one that had me constantly hitting repeat, but you can check it, and all of the others out on their bandcamp, where it's "name your price", and a deal you can't pass up.
~Skip

For Fans Of; Kyuss, Hangman's Chair, Blind Dog

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