London based stoner rock trio Chubby Thunderous Bad Kush Masters have filled their newest album Come and Chutney with psychedelic prog rock and heavy metal.
Starting off strong comes Doggy Bag of Slurry with its droning distorted introduction. It takes about a minute before any actual melody starts but when it does it’s surprisingly catchy. Given the impending-doom introduction, one would expect the rest of the track to follow suit, but the guitar riffs are pure head bangers. Krones of the Kiln then transports listeners with its fast drumbeat.
Like any good psychedelic album, each track just blends into the next. Cojones Feos is as catchy as ever. More metal than psychedelic, it’s a heavy tune. The guitar riff is a perfect air guitar candidate and with such a heavy bass drum it’s impossible to keep still. Glue Ear is by far the most distorted of the tracks. This is likely the track to separate the psychedelic fans from the metal. But anyone lost will be won back over by the guitar solo on the subsequent Gutlads.
The band’s wit and humour is emphasised the most on Doner Trump, where the three give their opinion on the US President. The lyrics can be hard to understand for non metal fans but the speedy rhythm will catch anyone.
For a new album there are a lot of familiar sounds – Black Sabbath and a bit of Led Zeppelin, for example. It can be easy to tell the trio’s influences at times. Possibly by chance, the band sound very similar to CKY, purely due to the guitar effects.
The album ends with the epic ten minute Psychedelic Hallucinogenic Vagrancy which sounds eerily similar to the Black Angel’s Young Dead Men. By far the most psychedelic song on the album, it’s a trip from start to finish. Like a song straight from the 70s, there’s almost no metal here at all but the range of instruments really highlights the Kush Masters’ musical ability.
A trippy mix of heavy metal, psychedelic prog rock and hardcore punk, the album has a bit of everything. Worth a listen for any rock fan.