Truckfighters - Universe (2014) [Hi-Res]

Hailing from the darkest reaches of Sweden, fast rising stoner titans Truckfighters have returned with their fourth full length album “Universe” which continues the bands long tiresome quest to remove what remains of your face with fuzz and stoner groove.

The Scandinavian three piece’s Pledge Music funded release may not really reinvent the wheel when it comes to stoner rock, it still pays its dues to the legends of the genre like Kyuss, Fu Manchu and Dozer, as well as certainly worshipping at the altar of all things Josh Homme. But at what it is, it certainly delivers the stoner fix that most fans of the genre will pine for.

The opening track ‘Mind Control’ is a four-minute blast of all things stoner needs to be, the riff is packed to the brim with distortion, the rhythm section is tight and packs a major groove that carries the track and a truly hypnotic vocal performance.

The album, whilst remaining firmly in the realms of stoner rock owes a debt to Georgian metal behemoths Baroness in terms of structure and overall composition. The shorter tracks such as ‘Mind Control’ and ‘Prophet’ remind me of the track ‘Take my Bones Away’ from Baroness‘s “Yellow Album ” which seemed to condense all the ideas and sprawling epics from the album into four minutes of great riffs and epic chorus’, it’s certainly an area I would like to see Truckfighters progress into on their next few albums.

Unsurprisingly for an album called “Universe” the album has acquired a spacier vibe than previous offerings, this isn’t hindered by the average length of a track being around the five/six-minute mark. The spacey aspect of the band is best shown on the albums epic conclusion ‘Mastodont’ which runs at a staggering 14 minutes in length and doesn’t disappoint in terms of spaced out stoner rock, the track does lose its way near the end, including a concluding acoustic guitar outro which seems very unnecessary, but is still quite a mesmerizing track.

“Universe” isn’t an album that will change the world but at what it does it does it well. The riffs are fuzzy and massive as well as some well worked spacey moments, it’s not reinventing the wheel but if you’re a stoner or an early Queens of The Stone Age fan this album will be right up your street.