Chris from Samsara Blues Experiment came in touch the other day to let me know about a label he started called Electric Magic. Label's two first releases are ready and of course they're on vinyl format. One of them is the debut self-titled album by Heat. Heat is a sideband of: Patrick Fülling (ex-Hara-Kee-Rees) in vocals, Ingo Börner (ex-Assassinations) and Marco Rischer (Grandloom) in guitars, Richard Behrens (Samsara Blues Experiment) in bass and Marcus Töpfer (Meatbeans & Ecke Schönhauser) in drums.
So using only common sense, considering the band's members, you'll be expecting this album to be good. You're wrong. It is outstanding. Heat wears its influences well. They inhale 70's heavy rock bands' addicting grooves, processing it through their nervous system and exhaling a mesmerizing smoke, taking you to a dope-fueled riff-ride. These guys are neither pretentious nor some kind of copycats. Just five really good music worshipers, gathered together and put out some kick-ass music, expanding the sound they love and giving it even more substance, thickness and pulsating grooves.
Heat is close to Kadavar and Samsara Blues Experiment but they have a more prevalent blues edge. The whole record is affectionately covered with a heavy blues veil. I always appreciate the use of double guitars as in Heat's case giving a more fat and complicated structure to songs as well as more ground for improvisations when the band performs live. I know Richard's bass' skills from SBE and once more he didn't disappointed me a bit. Now Patrick's vocals bring a lot in mind a combination of Kadavar's Wolf and SBE's Chris voices with a bigger touch of Ozzy or even Christian Lindersson. In the beggining you might find them a little bit weird but after a while you'll find out that they're in perfect fit with the music (I must say that I also like Patrick's vox in garage-rockers Hara-Kee-Rees).
"Daymare" is one of the songs falling easily into proto-doom category (it brings in mind Witchcraft's "No Angel or Demon" somewhere in the middle, having a more psych pinch in it). In "Warhead" the blues come a little bit forward. I mostly enjoyed the point where Patrick is making use of his screaming abilities along with the guitar solo just before the blues-driven part kicks in. In "Hamelin" is one of the moments where I found a big resemblance with Lindersson's way of singing while first side's closing track "Illusion" is full of frenzy pumping rhythms.
The second side features two tracks, "Old Sparky" and the epic -almost 16min- "Ending Again" which starts slowly with a give-me-some-love kind of guitar, building itself up to a nine-minute pandemonium making it my favorite track (being a devotee of long tracks, I always give them some bonus points).
The debut of these German culprits carries enough weight and strength to satisfy every single worshiper of vintage rock groove. Every fan of the above mentioned bands should dive into Heat's music. Less psychedelic than SBE (having the right amount of it though), more bluesy but always a heavy, crushing, strong rock brew. Dig it and support Heat as well as their label. A great start for Electric Magic...
by Thanos
Tracklist:
01. Daymare
02. Warhead
03. Hamelin
04. Illusion
05. Old Sparky
06. Ending Again
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