That’s the word that escapes the lips not a minute into Must Destroy, a meaty slice of stoner rock from Wisconsin trio Droids Attack (plus session keyboardist Tim Thompson who’s on every track, but is mostly relegated to a few tasteful swells per cut). And I tell you, it’s mostly due to the riff-factory that is singer/guitarist Brad Van. Bassist Nate Bush and drummer Tony Brungraber hold everything down admirably, but by this, the third full-length of Droids Attack’s catalog, it’s beyond obvious this is Van’s band.
And from the loose groove of the title track to the borderline thrash of “Koko Beware” to the worthwhile excuse to use a talkbox that is the intro of “Blueshammer” to the charming allegro stoner jaunt that is “Canadian Death Bus,” Van and his men dish out a myriad of cheekily named cuts so elegantly simple any sober review of them dangerously over-analyzes the material.
As I’m not intoxicated, I will say that among these really strong song arrangements, there is room for improvement, firstly in the bass lines of Bush who rarely strays from playing the root, which adds little to the looser, open passages Must Destroy frequently presents. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, the character of Van’s traditional stoner rock singing bark sometimes doesn’t cut it. It may be a production issue. It may be his phrasing. It’s something, but he doesn’t connect as well as he should.
Still, raising qualms about this is like trying to find plot holes in a cartoon. It’s here for fun. Why question it?
In A Word: Fuzz
