Mirror Queen - From Earth Below

  by Andrew Carver

published: 25 / 5 / 2011

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Review

Once upon a time there was a band named Kreisor (or Aytobach Kreisor, before it hade a name-ectomy). It was centred around the guitarwork of Kenny Kreisor (formerly Sehgal - he takes his name from the band, not the other way around). The band released an album called ‘Graveyard of Your Mind’ on Sehgal’s own Rubric label, also responsible for releasing several Woronzow label outfits, most notably the Bevis Frond. They’ve now undergone another name change, this time to Mirror Queen, and picked up a new bassist, Dave McGauley, and rhythm guitarist, Steve Austin. What hasn’t changed is the vast influence of 1970's British rock - Budgie, Deep Purple and Hawkwind, as well as American combos like Blue Oyster Cult and Blue Cheer. Kicking off with some distended guitar fuzz on lead-in track ‘From Earth Below’, you get 50-odd minutes of driving Fu Manchu-style rhythms and enough distortion to make Nebula green with envy. Listening to buzzing epics like the title track and ‘Into the Nebula’ (hmm ...), the only question on the mind of the informed stoner rock fan will be “Are these dudes on Tee Pee or Small Stone?” (For the record, it’s Tee Pee). There is, however, more to the Kreisor recipe than fuzz and crunch. The band likes to noodle quite a bit, and frequently turns the fuzz down, as on the intro of 'The Mirrored Queen, Part II', for a pleasantly chiming ‘Laguna Sunrise’ feel. Kreisor’s laid-back drawl is also quite amenable to the psychedelic atmosphere. Unfortunately, the track also highlights the band’s greatest weakness, an unfortunate tendency to work every sonic idea into the ground. Just about every song would have benefited from a 1-minute trim. The band wraps up their trip with a cover of Captain Beyond’s ‘Mezmerization Eclipse’, which adds almost three minutes on to the original’s 3 minutes, 48 seconds. ‘From Earth Below’ is a good album for fuzz-rock fans, but might strike some as too much of a good thing.

Track Listing:-

1 From Earth Below
2 The Mirror Queen
3 Dark Ships Arrive
4 On Dark Ships
5 The Mirrored Queen part 2
6 Mindworm
7 Black Finger Satellite
8 Into The Nebula
9 Lazarus
10 Mesmerization Eclipse