LONELY KAMEL is a Norwegian Stoner Rock band, who released its 3rd full-length on the 28th October 2011. The band was formed several years ago. In 2008 they put out their self-titled debut (which was re-released by Napalm Records on the 28th October 2011), followed by “Blues for the Dead” (2010). The band has already shared the stage with a.o. ORANGE GOBLIN, MONSTER MAGNET and KARMA TO BURN. Thanks to that, Napalm Records saw potential in LONELY KAEL and offered them a contract. And so “Dust Devil” saw the light of day.
It starts with “Grim Reefer” a Country/Bluesy guitar line, almost comparable to e.g. ZZ TOP. The song slowly advances with the vocals then also falling in. The bass and drums hold their peace until about 1/3 of the playtime. The tempo is low, but gets a kick in the rear halfway (to revert to the slower playing in the final part of the song), when things start to rock more. Then the grooves and Stoner-touches come out clearly. All in all, a decent track to begin with. The situation does improve with “Evil Man”, an groovy song that is excellent for cruising on the road. The guitar solo comes in later and for the better, since it kind of breaks the stream a little. “Blues For The Dead” indeed offers a very Bluesy approach, relying heavily on groove and feel, which I can only approve of. This sounds very nice. The clean vocals go well with it. While not the same style, it did make me think of BLACK SABBATH’s “Paranoid” song somehow. The guitar solo is also well done.
Another highlight follows (“Rotten Seed”) with the distorted, grooving guitars and the very attractive rhythm. Good stuff, I must say. Halfway, the bass and drums take over command before the guitar(s) come back in for the solowork. This will do well in live settings! “Seventh Son” sets in with an atmospheric intro, dominated by the bass. The vocals join first, then the guitar and drums. All this flows on slowly. After the solo and in the last part of the song, the music gets weird, psychedelic to some extent. This is an ok song, nothing special, though. With more than 7 minutes of playtime and not much change regarding tempo or the compositions themselves, it feels like the guys stretched a song that was (or, could have been) originally half as long.
“The Prophet” and “Ragnarörkr” are also less attractive/interesting, in my humble opinion. The first is a midtempo Bluesy song where the singing occurs with enough passion and feel. It is emotional, without a doubt, especially in the last moments when screams and shouts were delivered as if Thomas (in the context of the song, of course) was going mad. In short, you have to be in a certain mood to like this, I think. In “Ragnarörkr” the bass begins the song, after which the Stoner verses kick in. The singing is more normal (clean) again, while the guitarwork adds melodicness in between. All in all not bad, but rather linear and monotonous somehow.
Thankfully the guys wrote the straight-forward rocker “Roadtrip With Lucifer”. And it does rock! There’s also “Hard To Please”, an old school Heavy Metal, Stoner-influenced track. Almost teleported from the 1970s. Everything is well done here and especially the singing stands out. Listen to the chorus in particular. The melody in “Whorehouse Groove” sounded familiar, but I couldn’t relate it to a specific band. BLACK SABBATH? RAINBOW? DEEP PURPLE? In any case, the groovy/Bluesy verses do rock and the mix was done so that the bass became more audible. Great stuff to end with.
I’m no Stoner expert, nor was I familiar with LONELY KAMEL’s work to this date. But I can assure you that with “Dust Devil” the Norwegians convinced me of their talent and skills. Sure, not each song is a hit, but the majority is and makes the less good aspects trivial, when taking everything into account. The album has got groove, it’s got feel, it rocks! In short: recommended material!
Tracklist:
- Grim Reefer
- Evil Man
- Blues For The Dead
- Rotten Seed
- Seventh Son
- The Prophet
- Ragnarörkr
- Roadtrip With Lucifer
- Hard To Please
- Whorehouse Groove
Line-up:
Thomas Brenna – vocals, guitar
Lukas Paulsen – guitar
Stian Helle – bass
Espen Nesset – drums
Recent Comments