Modrigue FIRST BAND FROM OUTER SPACE is a young band influenced by 70s' HAWKWIND and the stoner rock movement. Their first album "We're Only In It For The Spacerock" delivers a raw, energetic and powerful psychedelic metal. Heavy cosmic Jam into the universe!

The record opens with experimental old school synthesizer sounds which makes you immediately take off from Earth, to announce "Sannraijz", a catchy trippy metal tune with reverb effects. The baby of you-know-who's "Space Ritual"! Besides, "Sometimes Going Too Far is The Only Way to Go" ressembles a little HAWKWIND's "Time We Left this World Today". The disc continues with "Sannraijz 2", a pretty interesting acoustic version of the song featured before. However, the highlights here are undoubtedly the last two tracks.

The title song features 20 great minutes of instrumental dark space rock improvisation with musical and rhythm changes, alternating peaceful and powerful movements. This jam is sometimes reminiscent of SUBARACHNOID SPACE. The cosmic trip ends with the heavy "Make yourself heard for the sake of the world", a mini space rock epic with beautiful flute playing.

"We're Only In It For The Spacerock" is highly recommended to space and stoner rock fans, especially HAWKWIND, PINK FLOYD and early MONSTER MAGNET lovers.

Modrigue Impressive hawks of the stoner rock

The Swedish band has quite evolved from their first release, and it shows. The line up has grown, the music is less raw, less chaotic, more structured and displays a larger variety of instruments. Vocals are more fluent and more spacey, due in part to the addition of a female vocalist. "Impressionable Sounds of the Subsonic" features top-notch stoner and space rock. A mindblowing cosmic journey exploring all types of planets!

As in "We're Only in it for the Spacerock", the album begins by setting up the atmosphere with synthesizers, guitars, drums and flute. The introduction sounds like a heavier version of ELOY. It goes on with "Utan Att Veta" which is maybe one of the best stoner tunes of the century. Powerful and freaky! The whole disc rocks and transports you in another universe far far away. From efficient heavy stoned riffs to relaxing moments through psychedelic sounds and acoustic pieces, from trance rhythms to bongos, through beautiful and angry flute playing, "Impressionable Sounds of the Subsonic" has nearly all! One can hear by moments influences from HYDRIA SPACEFOLK and PORCUPINE TREE. The disc finishes in an empty region of cosmos with an Hawaiian guitar jam.

One of the best space and stoner rock release. If you like 70s' HAWKWIND, HYDRIA SPACEFOLK, MONSTER MAGNET and PINK FLOYD, this album is for you!

Modrigue This third album from the Swedish space rockers shows a little inspiration inflexion compared to their previous opuses. With only three long tracks (four in the CD edition), the compositions has become less melodic, more stretched and improvised. "The Guitar Is Mightier Than the Gun" also marks another change with the discrete incursion of new elements for the band.

The opener and shortest song of the disc, "Demons & Haze", is simply one of the best compositions from the Swedishs. Best passage of the record, it possesses a powerful space stoner rock introduction with an unusual rhythm and vocal flow. Bombastic! The rest of the song is slower and features spacey keyboards reminiscent of Tim Blake. "Turn Left to the Mexican Barbeque" starts with a calm acoustic guitar, to continue with a heavy space metal jam with female vocals. Enjoyable, but we already heard better from FIRST BAND FROM OUTER SPACE. The 23 minutes title track is a little unusual for the band. Not entirely space rock or stoner, this piece alternates soft floyd-ish, psychedelic improvised and joyful cheesy moments. The middle part is too long and the music doesn't seem to go anywhere. Finally, the overall result is average.

The CD edition includes a 16 minutes long bonus track, "Smokin". This is rather a patchwork of different extracts than a structured composition. The song contains long calm passages, nervous moments, short middle-eastern melodies and HAWKWIND-esque touches. Not essential and also a bit lacking musical direction, but more convincing than the title track.

"The Guitar Is Mightier Than the Gun" is a little unequal and incoherent. The band wanted to evolve and emancipate from their initial stoner / HAWKWIND roots by proposing something new, which is a good thing. However, these novel elements are, on the one hand, stretched space rock improvisation (which has been done before in the 70's), and, on the other hand, soapy symphonic passages. The melodies are also less present than on their great previous album "Impressionable Sounds Of The Subsonic". The only remarkable track of the record is the opener "Demons & Haze".

Enjoyable if you like space rock and HAWKWIND, but not the best place to discover the band.