Clouds – Legendary Demo – Review

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Legendary Demo (Hydra Head)
by Brian Varney

Clouds is a spin-off of Cave In, whose stuff I haven’t heard. I came into Legendary Demo with some hazy expectations based on Cave In word-of-mouth, but this eradicated them pretty quickly with the power of its thunderous action-boogie. I’m not really sure what I was expecting, but definitely not this, especially on a record bearing the Hydra Head logo.

This shit’s sick in the same way as the early, super-distorted Hellacopters records and Life of Crime/You Can’t Pray a Lie-era Laughing Hyenas. What that means for you, the rocker-in-waiting, is a tightly-wound rhythm section pounding out furious beats that actually have some side-to-side swagger, and a guitarist who peels off thick sheaves of riffs that, at different times, draw both the Wipers and Foghat to mind.

A cover of the Zappa/Beefheart boogie jam “Willie the Pimp” is hidden between two songs, and it’s a pretty apt choice, since Clouds is a band that’s not afraid to boogie, but is also apt to crawl into some weirdness, as evidenced on the near-20 minute “Quartulli Dub,” which, as you might’ve surmised from the title, is a dub number. It’s better than the Bad Brains dub numbers, which admittedly isn’t saying much, but it feels very out of place here. Does it ruin the record? Nah. Dub fans may wanna give it a spin or two, and those who aren’t interested can just switch the CD off, since the band has thoughtfully placed it at album’s end.
(www.hydrahead.com)