Broken Castles - The Smell of Victory (Vandalism Begins At Home Records)

The late eighties and early nineties saw movements such as grunge and stoner rock, particularly the Palm Desert Scene take rock music to a place where it seemed to decompose into a sludgy blues-ooze but stop short of the intensity of metal through its retention of more melodic sonic pursuits. But that isn’t where the story ends. In fact, it was just the start of things. Indeed, the family tree of bands spawned by the subsequent adventures of Kyuss ex-members alone accounts for an impressive and influential scene in its own right.

Thanks to such actions, there is still a significant appetite for such music and bands like Broken Castles, perhaps more than ever, thanks to bands such as Queens of the Stone Age and Eagles of Death Metal, who took things overground.

The Smell of Victory, their latest ep, sits in that perfect place between those classic stoner rock sounds – that swampy yet intense, claustrophobic but melodic vibe, and other neighbouring genres – taking in the weight of metal, the groove of alt-rock, the ornate spirals of classic rock and plenty of psychedelic touches born out of the lysergic and louche energies that shoot through the music’s sonic veins.

It isn’t too hard to see the link between formative bands such as Black Sabbath and Blue Oyster Cult and their progressive yet intense, trippy and doom-laden sound and what Broken Castles are doing today, providing you stop off at My War, Black Flag’s sludgy-hardcore masterpiece along the way.

Those who miss the early days of the Palm Desert days when everything seemed niche and new, way outside the mainstream and the property of a dedicated and underground set of devotees, might just have found their new champions of that sonic cause. Actually, there is no question about it.

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