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AlbumREVIEWS: 'THE WANDERER' by HEAST
For their debut album, Jakarta rockers Heast dig deep into the ghost of 1970 psychedelia and romantically-barren desert imagery to deliver an ear-pleasing blast of stoner rock
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For their debut album, Jakarta rockers Heast dig deep into the ghost of 1970 psychedelia and romantically-barren desert imagery to deliver an ear-pleasing blast of stoner rock. If it weren't for the group's adventurous arrangement, its Americana-styled dedication would feel like a curious schtick.
The Wanderer (Dermaga Records), which the band has billed as a 'mini album' due to it merely having five songs ' too long for an EP but too short for a full length ' doesn't break new ground, but this was never intended.
Essentially an Indonesian ode to bands such as Blue Cheer and Black Sabbath, with some Jethro Tull flourishes, the record is all fuzzed-out guitars, crispy bass-lines and solid percussion work ' delivered within a blues rock framework.
More 'modern' equivalents are 1990s 'stoner rock' mainstays such as The Obsessed, Kyuss and Fu Manchu, all of whom were purveyors of the kind of machismo-filled mustache rock Heast pay homage to. There's a lot of hopefully-playful wizard-fantasy masculinity on display here (the record title alone attests to that).
'Gate Into the Voyage' opens the record with crunchy picked lines that sound almost grunge amid a choice of sorrowful notes. It quickly mutates into patiently sludgy rhythms, wah-wah effects and phaser-dipped lead guitars interwoven with static power chords (distorted, naturally) and walls of various guitar noise. It is more 'jam' than song but works well to welcome listeners and acts as a representation of what the record and the band offer in terms of formula.
'Iron Horse' gets right down to the nitty gritty with its psych-rock riffing ' Blues-scale maneuvers of course ' amped with the vocoder-assisted vocals of vocalist Fauzan Hammy Nasution whose double-tracked, high-pitch quality bares a slight resemblance to rock icon and Black Sabbath singer Ozzy Osbourne's stoner-rock-approved vocals.
Drummer Reza Suryadinata and bass player Suryo Prakoso lend a solid rhythm section for Fauzan and lead guitarist Rinaldhi Tyan's to wail their guitars above.
As yet, the band's sense of riffing is stronger than their sense of melodies and dynamics. The instrumentals often feel more pleasing in their cavemen rawness than sections where Heast tries to create a 'song', so to speak.
More than a little forgettable, Fauzan's melodic vocal choices are a good layer upon his band's musicianship, but they rarely add anything and often feel like an afterthought in terms of melodic lines.
'Desert War' and 'Elder Sun' (look at those stoner-ready titles!) are examples where a more-thoughtful sense of melodic choice either seems utterly dispensable or strongly influential. The former track rests solely on blankets of hard rock riffs, one after the other; while the former takes a more-simplistic riff and builds its dynamics through melodic and instrumental shifts.
While The Wanderer may yet be a perfect record, it sets a foot in the right direction with a strong sense of self, solid production and execution. The next step would be to let the songs start to breathe more in between an obviously full-bag of ready-to-rawk riffs.
'Marcel Thee
