The Re-Stoned - Revealed Gravitation (2010)

There is nothing like a good instrumental hard and heavy jam-out session and here comes The Re-Stoned from Moscow, Russia that delivers just that on their album "Revealed Gravitation" released on the excellent RAIG Records label. The cool thing about this band is the amount of ground they cover, from the instrumental sounds of The Atomic Bitchwax, Karma To Burn to space/psych rock sounds of Nebula to Desert Rock of Kyuss to all out 70's riff-rock worship in the style of early Fu Manchu and a lot in-between. The Re-Stoned also pull out its fair of psychedelia as well making this one of the better instrumental albums to be released in recent years. The power trio is made of Ilya Lipkin (guitars, effects and voices), Vladimir Nikulin (bass) and Andrey Pankratov (drums) and have already released a 4 track EP called The "Return Of The Reptiles" in 2009. Another point of interest is this is album was mixed and mastered by Alisa Coral from Psi Corps, another great band on the RAIG label that I will be reviewing very soon. The album art is an spacey, psychedelic image so it is a perfect match to the music on this 60+ minute album which goes from the heavy to bluesy to ambient to doom to psychedelic and back again.

Rather than having some standout tracks and a few fillers, this album is solid throughout and flows wonderfully well so it comes off as an complete piece of work rather than just a collection of songs. The opening three tracks, "Gravitation", "The Mountain Giant" and "Space" (watch the video below) are a killer threesome to begin the disc. The guitar work is very multi-dimensional and dexterous combining flange pedals, phase effects and plenty of wild killer riffing. The bass work of Vladimir Nikulin is outstanding in the grooves he unleashes, being a bass lover myself I spend most of my time listening to this album being zoned in his wonderful throbbing and groovy bass lines. The drumming of Andrey Pankratov is also a powerhouse performance and provides an perfect back-up for Nikulin. "Gravitation" is a Stoner Metal riff workout, "The Mountain Giant" is more of a energetic but bluesy psychedelic tune while "Space" is a slightly laid-back rock-jam that lets you mind wander into the cosmos. On "Bells", the band takes on a more experimental approach that builds in atmosphere throughout its 7 minutes. "Fra Fuf" on the other hand sounds very American and is total Stoner/Sludge riffage with the bass player working really hard, this tune is really exciting.

"Green Triangles" also features some wild bass lines and is upbeat and infectious while the following "Orient Of Doom" is a mesmerizing downer-rock tune and is one of the more Doom Metal influenced songs on the album. "Moriarty’s Blues" brings in a guest muso in Pavel Panfilov who delivers a stunning performance on what sounds like a very old Hammond organ, the sound is 70's and very organic. This is the odd track out in terms of atmosphere but is actually one of the real high-points of the album. The album never stops supplying magic moments as the next tune titled "Eternal Search" is also a great track, again it builds in atmosphere adding new dimensions along the way. "Electric Storm" brings the band back to killer riffage and infectious hooks, the guitarist is again on fire unleashing stunning guitar breaks. The album ends on "Sleeping World" which is another odd track out as it ends the album on a very relaxed note, its still a majestic piece of musicianship but something more upbeat and rocking I would have thought would have been a better choice for a closing track. Yet again. RAIG Records have released another killer album adding to their already amazing catalog, The Re-Stoned are a excellent band and very diverse within the framework of instrumental Stoner meets Psychedelic Rock. If you admire the work of all the bands I have already mentioned, you should find this an irresistible album. The Re-Stoned and RAIG Records deliver the goods…

9/10

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