There’s the moment that the big fat riff to opener ‘A Million Fireflies ‘ clubs you in the face like an over -friendly grizzly bear with a sound so impossibly perfect stoner, that you just want to lie back and let the music take you wherever it wants. It is just so heavy, warm and perfect. Then the (actually very good) vocals come in, all 70s throwback and I tense involuntarily, waiting for another cookie-cutter bland band let down. Instead I get some rising backing vocals pushing the song way over the top and I relax again. Just…. wonderful.
Sandwiched somewhere between Witchcraft and maybe classic warm stoner like Sungrazer with added meat and bounce, Greenleaf are the classic cliche of the side project that despite a revolving door roster are now more main project. Main man Tommi Holappa has even gone so far as to say that it’s his other band, Dozer, who have become the side project. Sometimes, like on ‘Carry Out The Ribbons ‘ or ‘Funeral Pyre’ it perhaps veers a little too far into the 70s re-hash project for me but then you get songs like ‘Golden Throne’ with it’s great tub thumping drum into and it just boogies off into the sunset, dragging your grin with it. And when that 70s thing is done right, ‘Levitate And Bow’ for example or ‘Howl’, you don’t care. It is effortless class, guys so steeped in this music that, eyes closed, they just go off one and you are happy and safe in their wake.
‘You’re Gonna Be My Ruin’ may be the monster here: With a pounding drum sound and an urgent, edgy riff bizarrely reminiscent of The Fields Of The Nephilim’s ‘Chord Of Souls’ in places and a lazy drawl to the vocals despite the lyrics it picks up the album and sprints for the end. ‘Tyrant’s Tongue’ keeps this momentum with some beautiful guitar work and a feel that live this could go anywhere. They close with the mighty ‘Pilgrims’, a track with a fuzzed out riff so goddamned warm it could thaw an ice giant; a truly beautiful way to end an epic album of huge riffing, warmth and perfect touch delicacy.
If you only buy one stoner album this year, make sure it’s this one because you’ll not hear anything with such an easy, unconsciously brilliant hand on the music. I haven’t felt so enveloped by the fuzz since I walked into the first London Desertfest. Which coincidentally was where I first heard Greenleaf.
Bloody cover’s freaking awesome too!
(8.5/10 Gizmo)
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