The DevilsHorns

2nd Sound is the, erm, 2^nd album by Finnish stoner crew Kaiser following their 2018 debut… erm, 1st Sound. Aside from perfectly accurate album titles, what else do the band bring to the very competitive modern stoner/sludgey/doom genre? Quite a lot actually. 2^nd Sound is 45 minutes of seriously impressive riffs, bass, drums and gruff vocals.

A trio, the most obvious, but lazy comparison, would be Mastodon. However, there are massive slabs of other influences, including the mighty Kyuss, Sleep, High on Fire and, obviously, Black Sabbath. 2^nd Sound blends these influences to shape Kaiser’s own sound. Big fuzzy riffs and deep bass-lines drive an album that doesn’t relent and never disappoints…almost, but more of that later.

Each of the 8 songs has a superb tone, it is a true stoner album and it gets the old head bobbing from the start. ‘Brotha’ is the album opener and, having a trapped nerve in my neck, I knew the album was going to be immediately problematic. It would easily sit in a Desert Sessions album and the head gets bobbing as the mighty Kyuss vibe kicks in. (It should be noted that the word ‘mighty’ should always prefix Kyuss).

to air-drumming and me flashing the horns. Great stuff. It is almost magical and perfect stoner material.

For the largest majority of the album, 2^nd Sound delivers on every single level. The only exception is the closing 10 minute epic ‘Aftershock’. This is a slightly more doom affair, slower and more deliberate than the previous tracks. Whilst it isn’t a poor track by any stretch of the imagination, it is overly long and the almost ‘jam’ nature midway through lost me a bit compared to the rest of the album. Perhaps if the whole album was like this, I would have been ok, so it maybe me being a bit churlish.

Ultimately, 2^nd Sound is an absolute beast of an album and Kaiser have fully announced themselves on the stoner scene with an album that will sound absolutely great live. This is a potential end of year list making album!

Essential!

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