Stoner/Psych
Magnetic Eye Records
Release Date – January 13th 2025
Line Up:
Tom Polzine – Vocals/Guitar
Roger Marks – Vocals/Bass
Zach Wheeler – Vocals/Drums
Tracklist:
Husk
Whale Lord
Doug
Camel Crusher
Husk (2012 Demo)
Whale Lord (2012 Demo)
Tusk Of The Thunder Mammoth (2012 Demo)
Yummy Yummy Yummy
For those of you who have not heard of Howling Giant they are possibly one of the finest purveyors of stoner/psych and here they celebrate the 10th anniversary of their debut EP which has been remastered and includes demo versions and a left field cover version. The original EP was recorded live in singer/guitarist Tom Polzine’s bedroom.
It’s a steady start on opener ‘Husk’ with a simple riff and multiple vocals, it grooves along nicely with a lovely organ adding spice in the background. ’Whale Lord’ is a slow burn with the bass intro providing the riff before Polzine’s guitar comes in and we’re off on another psych trip to the other side. The vocals are repeated underneath some seriously good interplay which travels for over eleven minutes and as you can expect it goes through different movements before ‘Doug’ comes knocking and offers a stinging punky groove before the epic ‘Camel Crusher’ builds slowly on some crushing doom.
Here come the demo versions of ‘Husk’ and ‘Whale Lord’ which are interesting to hear the development of the songs from these rough versions. Both ‘Whale Lord’ and ‘Tusk Of The Thunder Mammoth’ were developed as a mixing project when the guys were at college and they booked the cheapest time slot in the cheapest studio – 2am – 6am – and this is what they came up with in those four hours. I hope they got top marks! Whoever thought of covering the Ohio Express number ‘Yummy, Yummy, Yummy’ needs a medal because it seriously rocks and has all the saccharine taken out of it which is replaced by some serious weed. Definitely worth checking out to hear a band developing.
Written by: Smudge
Ratings: 8/10
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