There's been a lot of stoner rock to come out this year - to the point that it's kind of gross. That make it all the more exciting though when you come across a release like The Rise Of Beesus where you hear the Italian sludge lords putting out Melvins-derived music that has a noisy crush to it. There is a sense of distortion here that goes far beyond just the guitars - it grows to envelop the album and helps to define a release that is droning, moaning, and strangely powerful - resonating with something very weird in all of us.
I think a part of what makes The Rise Of Beesus so special is not just the weirdness, but the way that the band channels the weirdness into something greater. As you hear the fuzz-tastic riffs kick in you gradually realize that that's only the backbone for a band who have never been afraid to get weirder, louder, or more over the top than anyone else out there. The guitar solos are demented, careening this way and that and then finally resolving themselves back into the sacred riffs. It gives the album something very physical and makes it hard to distance yourself from the triumph that The Rise Of Beesus represents.
There are few truly psychedelic records in this day and age, albums that fit into the grand tradition laid down by all those psych bands in the 60s - The Rise Of Beesus does though. Thus couched it becomes hard to find separation from what the band has come to represent and it allows you, the listener, to lose yourself in a piece of art that fits into a half century long tradition. Beesus understand that weird is good and so push the boundary - I can only hope that they get even stranger as time goes on.
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