Asteroid - Asteroid II

This is my last review for a few days as i need some time to sit back and soak in all this great music that has come by way in the last couple of weeks. Its been a hell of a way to kick off 2010 and here is another potential classic, the brand new album from Sweden's Asteroid. The cool thing about the first Asteroid album was it was a album you could groove out to at any time of the day or night regardless of the mood you was in. The music was catchy but with enough fuzz and powerful grooves to rock out to but you can also just kick back and let the music wash over you. The new album simply entitled "II" is even more infectious and like the first album has been released on the Fuzzorama Records label. All the Asteroid trademarks from the first album are still there, fuzzy guitar sounds, 70's prog meets psyche rock influences and harmonies that have become a major part of the bands sound. "Garden" is a great opener to the album but by the second track "Disappear" you are truly hooked by their use of irresistible vocal parts, this is stoner rock you can actually sing to as the vocal lines automatically get stuck in your head. Asteroid play a relaxing form of fuzz rock and that is ever present in the third track "Karma" that rocks out just as much as it relaxes you into a sense of warm euphoria. Just like the first album the guitar work of Robin Hirse leads the way and is the most dominant in the mix with Johannes Nilsson on bass and Elvis Campbell on drums providing the perfect backbone to Hirse's free flowing jamming style. "Edge" is classic fuzz rock played in a way that has become a signature sound for stoner bands from Sweden and that leads effortlessly into "River" where the music takes on a more moody atmosphere. The album gets a more spaced out vibe from here on in but is also slightly heavier compared to the first half of the album. The band has always been pretty straight forward in terms of arranging songs but the second of "II" they indulge themselves by diving into experimentation of the 70's space rock kind while retaining the irresistible grooves. The next track "Lady" brings the band's 70's influences to the fore with some stunning prog rock vocal and guitar work which joins up with the next track "Towers". The last three songs blend together like a extended musical suite and if you are not paying attention, you would swear you just listen to one long song. The next song "Fire" is one of the strongest songs on the album, a total rocker from start to finish. If there was one track that sums up the sound of Asteroid its "Fire", they did songs like this on the first album and i can imagine them always doing it, its Asteroid at their best and the style they are most at home with. Like all good albums they leave the longest track for last and it is the excellent "Time". This is the most organic sounding jam song on the album, it also has a very spontaneous vibe to it adding to the feeling you are listening to a live jam that hasn't been over-rehearsed one little bit. The album is over in a very quick 44 minutes and it is a very engaging album all the way through, like the first album i think this will be a grower of a album. I just hope people catch onto the album a little quicker than the first time around, i cant find much to dislike about "II", so check it out. 9/10

Asteroid @ MySpace