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Quartet Conspiracy
Lotus |
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It's not often that you hear of those "Classic Rock" types coming out of Sweden-those Allman Bros., and Skynyrd types that wore dry the airwaves of Rock radio throughout the seventies and were and still remain such cultural icons in American music; I suppose locally, those groups from overseas made a great enough impact in their own right but rare such as it was to hear of an Atlantic crossover. Lately Swedish Punk Rock and Heavy Metal has been among the class of the industry and indeed they've produced some incredible talents of late. Lotus is an interesting listen-they're like Mountain meets Monster Magnet… They're a classic blend of traditional Blues-based Heavy Rock with an almost Southern-Boogie tinge to their style-not quite of the kick up your heels cops in the dust sort of way but there's a wholly American roots-Rock Govt. Mule thing going on here and it's kinda cool. "Nauseous" is the first tune that's really roused my interest here-three songs in actually though that's not to disserve the first two, it's just for a minute I'm trying to figure out who these guys were and what bands they came from. Actually Lotus is technically a trio but for this latest outing, the seven year old band recruited former Thin Lizzy guitar specialist Brian Robertson-famed Swedish guitar hero John Norum does a brief guest spot here as well-"Peace in Mind." Absorb some of the aforementioned influences or comparisons actually and give 'em another notch up on the volume knob with an extra degree of grime to their denim and you should have a pretty good basis for drawing a conclusion… The tunes are generally average length and definitely meant for an outdoor venue-an Alabaman cookout maybe but I was thinking something a little better-how bout one of them jam festivals only let's lose the sandals. "Puzzle of Confusion's" got a real melodic groove-definitely something to hook ya in-these guys aren't shy about presenting themselves; the inner booklet, about forty pages worth of song lyrics and band photos and one back page of relevant information. The most interesting and transitory tune of the bunch would have to be the rather flighty "Butterfly Effect," a well-composed Clapton-like ballad overlaid by a string section and piano. Otherwise its full bore and usually in your face heavy Rock riffs and smoky mountain stomp! Released by Record Heaven Review by Vinnie Apicella
[va85@columbia.edu] |