MONSTER MAGNET: 4-WAY DIABLO

Monster Magnet's 2007 release "4-Way Diablo" is their strongest and most focused album to date The mood of this disc is much darker than their earlier efforts, and the songwriting is superb, with a lot of attention paid to melody and strong hooks. "4-Way Diablo" has a glossy 1970's production, and Dave Wyndorf's vocals are commanding, lysergic, and stronger than ever. HIs voice seems to get better with age. The reason for the dark edge to this album is that Dave Wyndorf almost died of an accidental overdose of sleeping pills before he wrote these songs. Not to say that Monster Magnet has lost their powerful trippy edge. Far from it. "4-Way Diablo" is loaded with heavy space rock, retro 1970's metal, and starry eyed drug and libido driven 1970's rock. There is a very faithful cover of The Rolling Stone's space rock classic "A Million Light Years from Home". A few of my favorite tracks are the world devouring spacey "Cyclone", and the burnt out 1960's garage punk psychedelia of the title track. There is also a surprising use of piano in a few songs, most notably and effectively in "I'm Calling You". "4-Way Diablo" is an excellent album from a band that has been around a good while and keeps getting better with every release. Highly recommended. Can't wait for them to come out with a new one.

Here's the title track and "I'm Calling You". Enjoy.