progshine Wolfmother is an Australian band leaded by Andrew Stockdale (vocals, guitar) who is pretty much the only fixed member of the trio.

After two EPs this if the debut album of the band and is as strong as a debut can be. You have powerful Heavy Psych kind of sound with strong hooks and great riffs. Actually, this album would be flawlessly if it wasn't for one thing (that ends up being a big thing): Wolfmother SCREAMS for a great Hammong organ Deep Purple's style. It just does and it hasn't!

A couple of tracks have keyboards, but way too much on the background and way too simple for what it needed!

But an astonishing debut anyway!!

UMUR "Cosmic Egg" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Australian hard rock act Wolfmother. The album was released through Modular Recordings (a sub-label to Universal Records) in October 2009.

Despite a couple of lineup changes since the release of the self-titled debut album in 2005, the music on "Cosmic Egg" pretty much continue down the same 70s influenced hard rock road as the music on the debut album. Bandleader/lead vocalist/guitarist Andrew Stockdale is obviously the heart of the band and as long as he is in the band they will sound like Wolfmother. The tracks are generally energetic with powerful hard rocking riffs and memorable vocal hooklines, but there are also some more mellow psychadelic influences on the album. I´d say the band are equally influenced by an acts like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin and by a band like The Beatles. The quality of the material is generally high, the sound production powerful and the musicianship excellent.

Actually it´s hard to come up with anything negative about "Cosmic Egg". Maybe sometimes they wear their influences a bit too much on their sleeve and for a hard rock act they might be a bit too polished for some people, but upon conclusion "Cosmic Egg" is instantly enjoyable to my ears and at the same time it´s a very professional product. A 4 star (80%) rating is warranted.

voila_la_scorie It's virtually impossible to write a review for a Wolfmother album without referring to the heavy music scene of the 1969 to 1976 period, unless you have never heard anything from that time period and Wolfmother is your first introduction to the roots of hard rock/heavy metal.

I heard 'Cosmic Egg' first and two weeks later bought the debut album. After the first few songs I found myself repeating names like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Uriah Heep, the Doors, Deep Purple, Blue Cheer, Warhorse, Free, Trapeze, and of course, the White Stripes (not really old in comparison but of similar sound to Wolfmother). I also felt there was some similarity with the early albums of the Tea Party, a Canadian band that often toured in Australia.

The first track, 'Dimension' sounds like Blue Cheer borrowing Grand Funk Railroad's guitar equipment and putting a younger Jack White on vocals. I find it amazing that after all the evolution the distortion pedal has gone through, a band of modern times would try to emulate the sound of those purple hazy, crazy days of '68 and '69. Amazing and enjoyable.

From there on, the good times rock and roll on like a maverick locomotive about to plough off the tracks. We get a taste of gentler music when the sound switches to Zeppelin-esque styles or acoustic guitar intros reminiscent of early Trapeze or other hard rock bands of the early seventies. There are keyboard effects that will make you think of the Doors; power chord riffs and bass lines that will have you shouting, 'Black Sabbath, man!'; organ solos coupled with heavy guitar that will have you searching through your Uriah Heep albums; and a vocal style that will make you think Jack White has gone south (and down under) for the winter.

Yet in spite of all the old style music dished up for a modern day audience (and for guys like me who treasure the old school's old school), Wolfmother come off all rock and roll in all sincerity, no apologies or cover-ups (or covers for that matter). It's like three guys decided that there's no reason why one of the most creative eras of rock music has to be dead and embalmed and that they could breathe life back into the classic sound of early heavy metal and hard rock.

I give it a high four stars only because, honestly, I find the similarity between the White Stripes a little too strong at times, even though I like the Stripes. Wolfmother are very good at combining their influences into fresh material, and I think it would be good for them to assert their modern day originality more strongly. But that is true for the second album. :)

voila_la_scorie My friend came up to me one morning and asked me if I knew about Wolfmother. No, I did not. What? I hadn't heard about Woldmother? Apparently, until the night before, he hadn't either. So he let me listen to a few snippets of tunes on his iPod. Yup. Sounds good. Sure. Another hard rock band I should be into, eh? Uh-huh.

Then I heard the guitar riff for 'Sundial'. What the heck was that? That's effing cool. So, I ordered the delux-edition of the album, hoping for lots of Sundial riffs. What I got wasn't disappointing at all.

I gave CD 1 a spin in my car while driving and when it was done it spun a second time before CD 2 went in for a double run through. The album ended up on my MD player as well (that was before I had an iPhone) and stayed in it for two weeks before the debut album took over. What can I say? I love the music.

Only a couple of months prior I was thinking that music these days has stagnated (that was before I discovered the Prog Archives). Once there was a time when you could date a song to the year just by the sound and style. Now 2009 sounds almost like 1999. I gave up hope and spent most of my time in my 1968 to 1978 music collection. Wolfmother not only revive that sound and style of composing and playing but give it a shot to wake up the dead rock stars of the classic days of hard rock and metal.

What I particularly like about this second album is the appearance of some mother heavy riffs that would leave Tony Iommi wondering what he hadn't smoked to think of them. The riff and sound is so heavy sometimes it seems even the distortion is weighed down and sluggish, and an image of a glacier bulldozing it's way into downtown comes to mind.

But it's not all about knocking you senseless on your ass with heavy riffs. There's plenty of straight out hard rock and ease back acoustic and piano in the very best of the classic sense. For a band whose front man talks about a rock show that's just "bang, bang, bang, bang," one song after another (see their web site for the interview with Andrew Stockdale), they put a lot of effort into creativity and mood. The album is a rich menu of flavours.

One other thing I appreciate on this album is that there is less of a Jack White vocal style (though still prominent in some songs) than on their first album. At times I find myself thinking that Stockdale's vocals resemble a young Ozzy in tone but with power coming closer to (but not equivalent to) a young Robert Plant.

Overall, this album is a high four stars for me. I read somewhere that this is stoner metal but it's categorized as hard rock here on MMA. Whatever the case, if you want to hear what Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath might have sounded like doing a collaboration, then here is something that's pretty close in my opinion.

UMUR "Wolfmother" is the self-titled debut full-length studio album by Australian hard rock act Wolfmother. The album was released through Australian label Modular Records in October 2005. Australia has a proud hard rock tradition spearheaded by AC/DC and this album sees Wolfmother delivering music according to that tradition with balls and fierce conviction.

...and what better way to start a hard rock album than with an attitude filled scream like Wolfmother do on "Colossal". Lead vocalist/guitarist Andrew Stockdale has to be mentioned right off the bat, as he is quite the skilled and at times also raw vocalist. His voice and vocal delivey mean a lot for the music on the album. Wolfmother are a trio which in addition to Andrew Stockdale also feature Chris Ross (bass, keyboards) and Miles Heskett (drums). This is one of those cases where the "power-trio" format works wonders. Wolfmother are a tight playing unit but also skilled composers. They know exactly how to write a memorable and punchy chorus, hard rocking riffs and pounding beats. But they also understand that you won´t go far if you don´t write varied material, which is probably one of their biggests strengths. The way they touch psychadelic and stoner rock territories without compromising hard rocking power is brilliant to these ears. Paired with a powerful and not too polished sound production all mentioned elements make for a highly enjoyable listening experience.

While the main instrumentation are guitars, bass and drums, the occasional use of keyboards/organs provide an extra dimension to the album and much of the above mentioned psychadelia comes from the addition of especially organ.

Usually I listen to an album and either think that "this is not something for me" or "I´ll give this one more spins because it sounds interesting", but with "Wolfmother" I was hit with one of those rare moments where you like an album right away. A high energy level, a rock´n´roll "Fuck You" attitude and some really well written and memorable tracks result in a fully deserved 4 star (80%) rating.