Do you know what it's like riding the open highway on a 73 Harley Davidson with the sun beating down on your neck and the smell of hot leather and burning rubber slowing drifting up your nose, no, well to be frank neither do I, but if I did then the debut album from El Caco would surely be the perfect musical accompliment to go with such a great adventure.

Their name may well be literally translated as "The Thief" but El Caco have the ability to grasp the finer elements of their influences and believe it or not mould them into their own very unique sound.

You see Viva is stoner rock but with a difference.

Now from all what has already been said you'd think these guys would come from America, Mexico or even Brazil, but you'd be wrong. El Caco herald from Norway, that's right Norway the home of black metal, but there's not a black metal howl or grunt to be heard instead you get 12 tracks of thunderous road music that is so easy to get into you may well find that Viva could just be the album you are looking for this summer.

I'll Play kicks the whole thing off rumbling into life in the similar vein as kickstarting your bike for the first time on a cold morning, while the guitar work on Suffer could almost be dogs barking at your feet and Cosmic has to be the perfect song to simply close your eyes and drift away big time.

The only down side to all of this is that Viva does contain one or two references to 80's metal and that may well put you off, take my advice and don't let it because once you've listened to Viva a few times and played spot the influence you soon realise that El Caco's Viva is an album inspired by the best but never quite strips the band of their own unique musical identity, but it is a very brave release for a debut album, but here's hoping that like me you will warm to El Caco's stoner rock and here's one person looking forward to the follow up with a very open mind.

Released by Music For Nations

Review by Andy