A thousand knives of fire-Last train to scornsville

Small Stone
2008

Going into this album these guys obviously knew they were going to separate the styles on the album so they list a Side 1 and Side 2 to let us know. That’s very polite of them but we listeners are mostly educated enough to figure out the difference between the slightly southern rawk songs of side one and the darker, heavier tracks of side two. Both sides are indeed different, but they are linked by the common bond of being mediocre. This was unfortunately one of the more bland stoner albums I have heard in some time, possibly the weakest one I have since the last Bongzilla stunk up my stereo. The vocals sound tired and strained, the music has a few hooks, but not enough groove or grit to every really get much going. They come dangerously close and succeed at times in being forth a whole lot of clichés that could be attached to the stoner rock genre. One of the cool aspects about this genre is that it is open enough that bands can bring different emotions to the mix and it will still work. A thousand knives of fire have some idea of the shell of this style of music, but they fail to fill it in with fire, emotion or even a whole lot of interest on their part. Unfortunately for us and them the band rode this train down to dullsville.

www.myspace.com/athousandknivesoffire