Stereochrist

Dead River Blues
Punktuation Records
Does someone remember the Hungarian doom band Mood? Probably not, huh? Those guys were a much underestimated band and I think because of bad distribution they haven’t become the name they should have been. Anyway Mood fell apart and 2 bands were formed out of it. Wall of Sleep, who have been reviewed in Quintessence already, and Super Natural, the first inception of the band we’re talking about now, Stereochrist. I don’t know the reason but they changed their name at a certain point. With Dead River Blues we get the debut album of these Hungarians. The album is, what I would call, a middle of the road product. Not bad, not at all actually, neither a high-class product. It’s an album you put on and you almost don’t notice the music, it is just music that’s there. It’s not annoying but on the other hand it doesn’t blow you away, I guess it’s just an album that flows on the background. So to get a proper idea what these guys are about I decided to listen to it with headphones on. Well I can definitely say these guys have roots within doom but I hear some traditional rock influences as well. Basically I’d say this is a mixture of Black Sabbath and Alice in Chains to give you an idea. The fact I’m mentioning Alice in Chains also has to do with the vocals. The singer’s (who has been replaced in the meantime) style is very reminiscent to the style of the late Layne Staley. The music is very much based on guitar-riffs and you can hear they’ve given a lot of thought to the compositions. Like said it’s a decent album but I don’t think it will get picked up by the masses but people who follow this kind of music thoroughly will definitely pick it up ‘cause it’s a good effort.
Pim

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