From Lisbon, Portugal comes The Quartet of Woah!, a hard rock/prog/stoner act who've put together a pretty polished and fun collection of songs here on their latest Ultrabomb. The first thing that gets you is the striking fold-out digipack that the CD comes housed in, complete with psychedelic, retro designed artwork, and a mini-poster with more artwork and full lyrics. The music is '70s inspired heavy rock with some prog influences, fueled by Rui Guerra's array of electric piano & organ layerings as well as the meaty guitar riffs courtesy of Goncalo Kotowicz. On bass you have Andre Lopes Goncalves, and on drums is Miguel Costa, with all four contributing lead and backing vocals on the album plus there are a few guest vocalists as well. The vocals unfortunately aren't the strong point of Ultrabomb, as on some tunes they seem mixed a tad too high and the execution is somewhat average, but then on songs like "The Path of Our Commitment" and the title track the band delivers some stunning harmonies that remind of The Beatles, so go figure. Musically there's lots to dig into here, such as the organ/guitar rocker "Ode to Liberty", the muscular blues rock of "Slingshot Sam", the Deep Purple-meets-The Animals attack of "The Machinist Limps Toward the End", and the Clutch styled stoner/blues rock rumblings of "U Turn", "Master Lever Had a Dream", and "The Taste of Hate". Guerra's keyboard sounds scream the mid-late '60s psychedelic rock era, so while for some it might come across a bit dated, it gives the band a unique sound.
Seeing as this band only just got together in 2010, there's enough good stuff here on Ultrabomb to recommend as well as to suggest that The Quartet of Woah! are only going to get better if they continue along this path. Solid stuff all around, and an extra thumbs up for the killer artwork and CD package.
Track Listing
1) Master Lever Had a Dream
2) Ultrabomb
3) The Taste of Hate
4) The Announcer
5) How to Build a Bomb?
6) Prodigal Son
7) Empty Stream
8) The Path of Our Commitment
9) Ode to Liberty
10) Balance
11) Slingshot Sam
12) The Machine Limps Toward the End
13) U Turn
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