Blind Dog--Captain Dog Rides Again
MeteorCity 2003
With their first album, The Last Adventures of Captain Dog, Blind Dog crafted one of the more unique sounding slabs of "stoner rock" ever to drop. 2003 sees the band finally unveiling their follow-up outing, Captain Dog Rides Again. The sound has certainly changed a bit but the quality is still there in spades.
The press release for this album coins Blind Dog's sound as "prog-thrash" which is quite misleading. While there are prog elements in some of these songs, there's nothing thrash about Captain Dog Rides Again. Still, the Blind Dog sound has in fact shifted between albums. On their debut, the band combined an array of styles, throughout, to create a very distinct sound all their own. Here, things are now, for the most part, straight-up "stoner"/"desert rock." Also, like many other bands from these genres have done recently, Blind Dog inject elements of the "death 'n roll" style pioneered by Entombed into the proceedings, as well. The result is a sound less obviously their own but with a much greater sense of cohesion and flow.
Now, this is not to say Blind Dog haven't pulled out anything distinctive on Captain Dog Rides Again. "Follow The Fools," this album's best track, sees the band delivering a superb piece of prog-infused groove, complete with sections which echo the hippie-psych of such outfits as Country Joe and the Fish. Still, for the most part, these songs are very straightforward. That isn't an awful thing when the material is this strong, though. In fact, if "Let It Go" were to be released as a single, it could potentially break Blind Dog into the mainstream. This particular track is sure to appeal to fans of Alice In Chains and Queens Of The Stone Age.
Captain Dog Rides Again manages to not be the musical epiphany of Blind Dog's previous album, yet somehow come off more solid. There's only one explanation for this--undeniable raw talent. For those who found The Last Adventures of Captain Dog a little too much to get their heads around, Captain Dog Rides Again will make it easier to digest what Blind Dog is serving up.
Score this CD directly from METEORCITY
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