High Noon Kahuna – Killing Spree
Self released / Mettle Media PR
Rock, Surf, DoomGaze, Noise, Psych, Punk
Rated: *****
Out next week… But spinning relentlessly over here for quite some weeks now: Killing Spree by trio High Noon Kahuna. It’s here to bend your brain a bit, and to make you lust for a stormy night outside, while you read through The Last Voyage Of Captain Cook again, or Mark Twain’s Letters From Hawaii. Or at least finish a bottle of dubious rum and spend some time with the ghost of Captain Cook down at Refuge Point, for Killing Spree sounds like somewhere deep in the undercurrent of this majestic album you can hear whispers of native legends, stories of old wars, and of course the strange and terrible fate of the Captain. But in truth, this is only because Kahuna alludes to the Hawaiian islands and there is a definite threatening surf rock element; for the three good old boys are from Frederick, Maryland, USA and probably a hundred miles from the nearest ocean. Even so, the trio of veteran heavy music musicians with Tim Otis on guitar (Admiral Browning / Akris), Brian Goad on Drums (Internal Void / The Larrys), and Paul Cogle on Bass and Vocals (Akris / Black Blizzard) sound like they know a thing or two about going off on a mystical tangent and about doing a great run. Opener Parachute starts with a skateboard rushing by, a wicked drum rhythm setting you up for that Dick Dale, Eastern tinged surf guitar you know is coming. And once it hits, so does the careening vocals, revving you up for a good run. In the park, in the ocean or in a mosh, this is the surf of legends. But then following track Danger Noodle and single, ups the ante, and gives the opener a run for its money. Menacing, threatening, with an intense drive and maddening surf groove, Danger Noodle worms its way without any qualms into your heart, brain and soul. This is the kind of music that would give your car an extra hundred miles even when you have run out of fuel. Third track Sharktooth and fourth, the other single, Another Way Around feel like they are answering each other and the questions they might have asked. But where Sharktooth keeps its cards close to its chest and rambles on, with that punky, skater attitude. Another Way Around opens up and often feels like that moment between swells where you await the coming of that perfect wave. And of course it comes and if you aren’t ready and don’t catch it you shall and will wipeout. Or perhaps you did, and crashed onto the beach. Where fifth track Black Lodge, picks you up and has you slowly and dizzy lumbering off into the brush behind, to see if you can scare up another bottle of dark plantation rum or push one of those pesky Keith Richards out of a palm tree. With a lot of surf, circling riffs, bobbing bass work, sweet and choppy drumming, they spin the yarn of a few tension arcs, before ending it all with a pretty scary almost extradimensional dread. Closing track Sandstorm is here to show the squares you can surf in the desert as well. Almost ten noisy, doomy, stoner soaked, and steaming hot minutes of fierce guitar work, and blistering clamor that ends with everything in the vicinity of the three artists being struck before the distortion slowly dies away… And you can finally come up for a bit of air… Not sure about what we just jotted down, and I guess we can blame my mania for that. My passion, and my slavery to it. There is little balance between my brain and my soul, and when the fire is lit, I can only watch the fuse sizzle away before it all explodes in hail of love and weird brainwaves. Which sort of feels fitting for High Noon Kahuna... For what I do know is that I love this Killing Spree and High Noon Kahuna can ask me for a drink every time we should meet…
(Written by JK)
Bandcamp
Facebook
Instagram