Spiritu--s/t
MeteorCity 2002
Considering the love of Kyuss MeteorCity Records was built on, one might expect Spiritu, fronted by MeteorCity main man Jadd Shickler, to be a bit of an exercise in idol worship. Not so fast. Before you ever lay ears on Spiritu, two things must be made clear. First, and most importantly, Spiritu is not "The Jadd Shickler Band"--these guys are a tight, well-oiled unit. Secondly, with their self titled debut album, Spiritu have crafted stunningly executed doom 'n' groove of the highest order.
While there are some nods to the desert side of riff-rock in Spiritu's music, mainly due to some nicely wahed and chorused bass parts, this material definitely leans toward the doom end of the spectrum. That doominess lies primarily in the guitar work--the riffage on this album is from the Black Sabbath/Iron Man school of thought, with lots of tasty trills sprinkled all over the place. This backing is held together by rock-solid drumming which always manages to keep the time steady over a multitude of tempo shifts. Then there are the vocals. Jadd's voice sounds like a cross between the voices of Dan Michalak (Iron Man), John Garcia (Kyuss, etc), and Dan Kerzwick (Sixty Watt Shaman)--for it's strong vibrato, high-pitched nature, and grit, respectively. Add all of this together and you have a very potent and dangerous band.
No matter how good a group of musicians you have, success always boils down to the quality of songwriting, though. Needless to say, Spiritu deliver on this front, as well. On "Fat Man In Thailand," Spiritu put a little boogie into their doom to amazing effect. "Glorywhore" sees the band slow and quiet things down a bit, bringing their aforementioned desert leanings to the surface. However, Spiritu are at their best on the album's opening track "Z (Noonday Demon)." This song is picture perfect doom 'n' groove with a nice epic feel, to boot. The lyrical theme of perseverance makes the track seem like an answer to "Eye Of The Tiger" for doom fiends. An incredible triumph in a field of very solid material.
Spiritu come through with flying colors on this debut album. Jadd, and possibly others, might've had apprehensions about this album being released on MeteorCity. Any such apprehensions were unfounded, though--Spiritu is worthy of standing alongside any other album in the label's catalog. A very strong, but well deserved, endorsement.
Score this CD directly from METEORCITY
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