Rating: NNNN
Remember when you thought the heaviest kind of music was the fastest and most technical, full of feats of guitar virtuosity and completely brutal singing? Actually, the heaviest music is often the opposite of all that. Take Shooting Guns’ second album, a slow-motion tsunami of relentless, pummelling sonic groove.
What’s so effective about the instrumental psychedelic-doom five-piece from Saskatoon is their dedication to simplicity. One great idea – usually a monster riff set against motorik drumming – gets repeated for five or seven or sometimes 10 minutes, contoured and shadowed by woozy synths and more guitars, and somehow constantly growing larger, like a menacing storm cloud seeping across the sky.
Maybe it’s the lack of vocals, but the entire project – including the band’s workmanlike live show – is refreshingly free of attitude, ego and posturing. Produced by Monster Magnet’s John McBain, the album’s also hella loud. Go Blind stands out for its suspenseful yet calming softness, and the epic air-horn-tinged Motherfuckers Never Learn for its charging urgency.
Top track: Motherfuckers Never Learn
