Lords of Bastard - Lords of Bastard

by Kelly Smith

published: 27 / 8 / 2008

Label: SL Records
Format: CD

Disappointing debut album from Scottish stoner group Lords of Bastard, which is ruined by its heavy production

Review

If you name your band Lords of Bastard, you really are asking for trouble. And when trouble arrives, you should be ready with a sound that knocks it back to 1987. You don’t want to be saying “Hey, trouble, sit tight whilst I knock out 6 minutes of thick, clunky feedback with barely a vocal to break it up.” Too late. Trouble has gone. I really know very little about production, I’m no sound engineer, but I just don’t feel like this is how an album should sound. There’s no individual instrument which stands out, and the vocal is all but lost beneath the collective noise. Mostly, it sounds like they’ve recorded it in a shed. Under the sea. Wearing a duvet. Okay. Maybe I’m being unfair. It’s not hideous. And in all fairness, there are blasts of inspiration evident in this album. If I saw this live, the growling mechanical thud would sound fresher and livelier, the beat would be more obvious and the incomprehensible lyrics would at least be incomprehensible for a reason. Some of the tracks have genuinely good sections hidden two and a half minutes into them, and there are flashes of something which if slightly polished and tweaked could turn into stoner rock for the masses. On the plus side, I do like their inventive song titles (my personal favourite ‘The Old “Reflection in the Bathroom Mirror” Trick’) and I really genuinely appreciate the press release claiming “if you like albums, this might be for you.” I mean, I do like albums and all, and I really wish I’d enjoyed this more than I did. Maybe I just didn’t get it, which is entirely plausible. Lords of Bastard, I tried. I like the cut of your jib, just not the sound of your album.

Track Listing:-

1 Kingsize Karma
2 The Old "Reflection In The Bathroom Mirror" Trick
3 Fucking Hell
4 Quite Quiet
5 Impossible Fight Song
6 Agoraphobe Fantastico
7 The Burning Of The Midnight Plant
8 Off With Their Heads
9 The Uayeb