Masters of Reality

Warning! This is not a stoner album! Yes, I know, I’ve tagged it as stoner myself, but that’s only because of Master Of Reality’s history. Without Masters Of Reality there wasn’t Kuyss and without Kyuss there wasn’t stoner rock, although Masters Of Reality already left the stoner sound since their second album ‘Sunrise On The Sufferbus’ (1992), except for the occasional killer riff on every album. Just like this album, because there are in fact only two ‘stoner’ songs. First one is the opening song ‘King Richard TLH’, which got a fantastical enslaving riff with the warm depth of Chris Goss’ supercooled voice. The CD is divided in two parts, section ‘Pine’ and section ‘Cross Dover’, and the second section starts with an even cooler riff. That song, ‘Up In It’, initially starts with a incredible simple, and lame Casio computer drum beat, but the joining bass groove already creates a lot of excitable tension, while the guitar killerriff the song promotes to the Rock And Roll Riffs Of Fame. The most legendary riffs are mostly incredible simple ones (think ‘Smoke On The Water’, ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’, ‘No One Knows’) and here we have new future classic!

‘Pine/ Cross Dover’ is the first studio album in eight years. Between ‘Deep In The Hole’ and this one, Chris worked with Twiggy Ramirez (ex-Marilyn Manson!) on a Goon Moon album and released a solo album ‘Give Us Barabas’ (marketing strategies obliged the record label to mention the name Masters Of Reality on the album as well, but eventually all Chris Goss-related material derives solely from his brain). This album took quite some time to write and produce (it was originally scheduled one year ago), and this album will also take quite some time to fully absorb and appreciate. The rest of the album shows the diversity and musical eclectic mind of Chris Gosses brain, which can causes a hard time for rockers with a liking for straight and simple. Every song has its own atmosphere and sound, but due to the characteristic timbre of Chris and his typical way of song writing (the quadruple time is taboo), it’s still undeniable Masters Of Reality. From trippy, alienating pop-rock (‘Worm In The Silk’) and like a reunion between Brian Ferry and Brian Eno in Roxy Music (’Dreamtime Stomp’), to a skiffle like he did before with ‘She Got Me (When She Got Her Dress On)’ on ‘Sufferbus…’ (in the utterly swinging ‘The Whore Of New Orleans’) and the ominous moody joint-venture with trip hop-rockers UNKLE in ‘Testify To Love’. There are also two instrumental songs on the album that shows the more jazzrock-ish side of the band (which is these days only Chris and drummer John Leamy, and features some friends from Eagles Of Death Metal). Especially the twelve minutes of the closing song ‘Alfalfa’ is a great jam rock somewhere between a heavily inspired sound The Grateful Dead and a floating Mahavishnu Orchestra.

Once again, ‘Pine / Cross Dover’ is not your straight forwarded rock & roll album that gives away his prices during the first listening session. Besides two songs it has nothing to do with stoner, but I know how people like to cling on to stigmas and old traditions. Therefore I tagged the band as being stoner, just to reach enough people for the band to trigger the people to see the band on the upcoming European tour in October. I just did it for the good Goss. --Evil Dr. Smith