Krakow

Monolith
by Scott Hefflon

Debut full-length from a Norwegian stoner rock band that shows promise. A good band treading water in a pool of good ideas, not sticking with any one idea/style long enough, or not having the experience to focus on it and make it happen, thus, essentially, floundering. There are good grooves here, there are good effects here, there’s some good songwriting evident here, but a few handfuls of “ouch! Someone shoulda told them to drop that part!” and you’re a charitable soul if you can still chalk the failures up to debut band inexperience. Buy me a row of shots and I’ll nitpick, guys, this really ain’t the time or place. Simply put: This band does a lot of things right, seemingly by accident, naturally, and that’s worth a lot. It means they should try less and let it flow more. Er, but maybe ask a sober friend if the stoner jams are still engaging after five minutes, or if the slush-push has sent the stoners into slumberland. (Even Pelican zone-outs make me to snap alert on occassion to snarl “are you still playing that goddamn riff?!?”)
(www.myspace.com/krokowband)