Spiritual Beggars-s/t

Regain
1994/2008

The debut from Spiritual Beggars was originally released back in 1994. This band was lead by guitarist Mike Amott who had already been in Carcass by that point and it was just a few years before the formation of Arch Enemy. The sound of this album is perhaps more surprising for having been released in 1994 then if it had been released today. I say that because stoner rock and doom were still rather underground and bands were few and far between back then as opposed to the plethora bands that have popped up in this decade. So the real question is probably is this album anything to get excited about? Despite the fact that I have heard plenty of stoner of doom bands in recent years and heard lots of angles, styles and variations, the answer is yes this is still and album to get excited about. The approach is very simple, it’s largely late 60’s/early 70’s metal with a good slab of psychedelic rock wedged in. The vocals lean a bit more to the styles of that day as I hear some Soundgarden in there. Yet the music is just huge layers of rolling, swirling riffs with a whole lot heavy fuzz wrapped around every note. Perhaps the thing that might have set them apart from the peers of the time was the direct approach as bands like Sleep and Cathedral seemed more involved in rolling out their songs with more build-up. I think this is an album that would appeal to both fans of early 70’s metal and just fans of solid metal in general. It’s basic, but they instantly hit a nerve with their steady assault and they just dig in and keep plowing forward. This album contains four bonus tracks that are of a very similar style to the original tracks of the album. I understand this was a fairly rare album that had been fetching a good price prior to this re-issue and after hearing it I can now understand why.