UMUR
"Peace" is the debut full-length studio album by US stoner/hard rock act Vista Chino. The album was released through Napalm Records in September 2013. Vista Chino features several former members of the influential stoner rock act Kyuss and were formed in 2010 after they were forced to stop using their touring name Kyuss Lives! as a consequence of a lawsuit filed by former Kyuss colleagues Josh Homme and Scott Reeder.
The music on the album is stoner/hard rock featuring fuzzy guitars, organic dusty beats, a skilled and powerful sounding vocalist and just a generally great hard rocking sound. There are several ties to the trademark Kyuss sound here, but Vista Chino have developed on that original stoner rock style and sound more direct, hard rocking and fresh here. They skillfully manage to balance between hard rocking riffs and those dusty organic stoner beats and at the same time deliver memorable vocal melodies and fuzzy guitar hooks. The band are very well playing and the organic sound production provides the music with the perfect platform to shine. I simply can´t praise the sound production enough. It´s incredibly well sounding.
The material are generally strong, but tracks like "Sweet Remain" (which the band also released as a video) and "Planets 1 & 2" are among those that stand strongest in my memory. The 13:00 minutes long closing track "Acidize...The Gambling Moose" also stands out as a result of it´s heavy 60s influenced psychadelic sound and inclusion of harmonica playing by Chris Cockrell (I even hear a trace of early Black Sabbath in the heavy blues based riffs). Overall there is a good balance between vers/chorus structured tracks and more losely structured material ("Dark and Lovely" is probably the best example of that). As a result "Peace" is a pretty varied release within the style and greatly entertaining all the way through it´s 57:22 minutes long playing time.
If anyone thought these guys weren´t relevant or couldn´t deliver a hard rocking product anymore, I can assure you that nothing is further from the truth. "Peace" is a strong statement by Vista Chino that they are fit for fight and more relevant than ever. A 4.5 star (90%) rating is fully deserved.