Shooting Guns provide the perfect soundtrack for the morning
after the apocalypse, when you are sitting in the rubble of your home in a
bathrobe and think, ‘What should I do now?’ and end up zoning out for hours in
a psychedelic trance instead of making a survival plan. Bad move on your part,
because you are probably going to die.
Canadian sextet Shooting Guns is known (and oft-nominated)
for their film soundtrack work, but Flavour Country is more like a collection
of anthems for your jettison from this universe into the multiverse.
While they’re known for heavy and saturated sounds befitting
crazed horror-comedy flicks like Netflix hit WolfCop, Flavour Country features
some of the band’s fastest, heaviest and most visceral material to date. Yet,
it also features some of the band’s most atmospheric sounds as well.
At times there are slight hints of Ennio Morricone’s
Spaghetti Western twang amidst the looping Meddle-era Pink Floyd heavy psych
and driving drone reminiscent of Bobby Beausoleil’s belladonna laced soundtrack
to Kenneth Anger’s Lucifer Rising. But for the most part here, Shooting Guns is
out for blood, regardless of tempo.
Album opener “Ride Free” kicks off with a blistering wall of
guitars blaring and rattling out of the gate like mutant progeny to fellow
Canadian biker-rock heroes Steppenwolf having duly fired all of the guns,
exploded into space and returned to hunt down every last one of us. It
accelerates from there: “French Safe” sounds like an unhinged battalion of
musicians driving full throttle like a scene from a George Miller Road Warrior
movie. Biting, lengthier tracks like “Simian Shelf” and the title track occupy
the heavy end of the psychedelic spectrum, haunting the foggy moor between
early, bluesy Sabbath-styled doom riffery and heavy pulse-riding kraut-rock.
Flavour Country is the first album recorded by the band
themselves at their own Pre-Rock Studios in Saskatoon, SK,
located in the middle of the Canadian prairies. The album title’s spelling is
itself a nod to the band’s Great White North homeland. The album was mastered
by John McBain (ex-Monster Magnet, Carlton Melton), who also mastered the
band’s previous RidingEasy releases.
Shooting Guns have toured over 60,000 miles across Canada
over the past 7 years but have yet to tour Internationally, which will be a big
focus for them after this release. They are touring their live score to F.W.
Murnau’s Nosferatu across Canada throughout 2017 and also just finished scoring
the soundtrack to Another WolfCop (sequel to WolfCop), which is slated for a US
theatrical release in Sept 2017. Their sophomore LP, Brotherhood of the Ram,
released in 2013 through RidingEasy Records was nominated for the 2015 JUNO
Metal/Hard Album of the Year as well as the Polaris Music Prize. Their debut
LP, Born To Deal in Magic: 1952-1976, was also nominated for the Polaris Music
Prize in 2012.
Give them a listen...
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