Kevin McHugh
There’s been an ever-building avalanche of praise for Blind Dog’s newest effort, ‘Captain Dog Rides Again,’ across the internet lately, and I’m only too happy to add my voice to it. Clearly, MeteorCity has yet another jewel in their crown, which these days is probably more jewel than crown anyway, judging by the success of past releases. Not since Solace’s ‘13’ (a whole 5 months ago, ha ha) has the label hit such a high.
‘Rides Again’ builds on the remarkable strengths of the group’s first album, ‘The Last Adventures of Captain Dog,’ without making it a copycat effort. Although ‘Rides Again’ contains many of the same elements rough-edged vocals, heavy blues-oriented stoner grooves, big guitars and vocals, lots of early 70s sounds they’ve pretty much thrown out the doom influences found on the first album in favor of a few other things. As far as contemporary influences go, they are clearly in the same league or have surpassed fellow Swedes and righteous stoners Spiritual Beggars and The Mushroom River Band. Not only does vocalist Tobias Nilsson’s BTO-on-razor-blades gargle sound like Janne and/or Spice respectively, but the additional keyboards only add to the effect. But when The Dogs delve further afield….ah, then things get interesting. On this disc they throw QOTSA, Entombed, 60s pop, Kyuss, early 70s Europrog, and even a bit of the Beatles into the mix. Blind Dog’s particular genius is that they are able to make all of these their own without disrespect and without plagiarism. Of course, it all sounds like Blind Dog in the end.
We’ve been blessed with another superb release from MeteorCity, and I’ll be surprised if this isn’t a top tenner on many people’s lists by the end of the year. Lets just make sure that there’s not another three-year delay between albums next time, ummkay?
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