Truly
Scrumptious By Clare Dowse
Rating - KKKKK (Essential)
Imagine Monster Magnet's space trip blended with the bombast of Led Zeppelin,
riffed up by Soundgarden, sung by Jim Morrison, stuffed into Kyuss' pipe and
smoked by everyone. You've imagined "Fast Stories... From Kid Coma," the colossal
new LP from Seattle trio Truly.
With Hiro Yamamoto, ex-Soundgarden bassist, and former Screaming Trees drummer
Mark Pickerel making up two-thirds of the line-up, you know you're in for something
special, but Truly's debut LP exceeds all expectations. For a full 72 minutes,
you're encased in a pumped-up, tripped-out, monstrously heavy album. As third
track "If You Don't Let It Die" thunders towards its sweetly crafted chorus,
you're already hooked.
Truly effortlessly handle the epic and complex without descending into pretension.
It's all held together by the tortuous twists of Robert Roth's voice (as on
"Blue Lights"); his guitar unashamedly rich and retro, and drenched in feedback.
The LP climaxes with 'Hurricane Dance,' an eight-minute rush that sounds like
a juggernaut about to run you down - courtesy of Pickerel, whose playing throughout
is exceptional - and feels like a night in an opium den. Tumbling after is an
embarrassment of riches, like the keyboard-swathed 'Virtually' and the heavyweight
'Strangling.'
In the last 12 months, only Smashing Pumpkins have made a rock album that
sounds so immense. But almost unbelievably, Capitol Records currently have no
fully confirmed plans for the release of the Truly LP in the UK. What a f**king
travesty.
(Kerrang! November 17, 1995)
Kerrang! 572