Snail – Feral

Surprisingly as it may seem, Snail have been several years on the run. And as escargot moves around very slow, never changing its spot, likewise they maintained their identity through the early90’s until now.
Cut along w/ bands like Kyuss, straight from the desert sound of the post stoner rock scene, Snail made sure that this interesting move maintained.

Psych, and heavy enough, Feral, feels like a trip through space-time and mind. Building a Haunted House is a sound of an alarm of exquisite psystoner stuff. This material is good, the voice act accordingly, and even the sound arrangements are 5 star quality. Especially the last one.

The audio is recorded with the analogic tone, almost in a Tame Impala register, and it’s even more odd that, with such a talent, these Californians managed to remain such underground rockers. You could easily pick one track a re-ear it over and over. Be it the contemptuous Smoke The Deathless, the good trip acidic A Mustard Seed, or even the philosophical ethereal Thou That Art, keeps you hungry for more. Still, the record per se is a whole that deserves be hear from start to finish, even though the tracks are not linked w/ one another.

The instrumental background is excellent, and what brings color to the scene is the fact that they’re so well balanced. Matt Lynch’s bass is groovy deep, and over filling the background sound w/ depth and attitude, whilst Marty Dodson’s drumming sets base for guitar and bass to develop its craft.
Mark Johnson on the other hand delivers the best raw, naked simple riffs I heard in years. Really this is Josh Homme high-class shit material. Although not very technical, the precise equilibrium of melodies, grasps you from the 1^st moment on. Mark even bests at the vocal level, delivering that classic psychedelic bad dream, w/ a distorted Alice In Wonderland vision.

It wouldn’t surprise me that it could be a classic album for years to come.

9/10

Words by Refugee

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