Eighteen Wheels Burning-tweak'd out, strung up & redlined

Meteor City
2008



Eighteen Wheels Burning are a power trio who take the fuzzed out sounds of the late 60's-early 70's and drag them into the present. Their music is based more around big swirling grooves than heaviness although there is enough of both to go around. Instead of hitting hard from the get go these guys tend to make their approach more of a slow and steady push. They know how to bring the jams though as they often work themselves into a good frenzy of sounds in the middle of a song. The drums have an under produced quality to them like they were recorded live in a basement. The other instruments have a similar tone and the bass really gets it's due in the production as well because you can hear and oftentimes even feel each note. I would say the influences include but are no limited to Hendrix, Sabbath, Blue Cheer, Grand Funk Railroad and early KISS. That's the good about the band and there is a lot to like, but I wasn't exactly doing cartwheels over the music or at least not the whole time. They know rip it up plus the tone of their music is very cool. Still I felt that there are a number of occasions where the flow of their music is stiff and doesn't move as easily as they would like it to. There are parts of every song that I like, but they produce a number of average and tedious passages as well. There are some moments where they just shred. Yet in between those bursts of fire are also times where the music can be dull and just meanders around waiting for some sparkle to come and save the song. An above average album for sure, but not one consistent enough to put on my "A" list.