We should all know by now where metal gets it’s lineage from. The well-documented tales of the likes of Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Blue Cheer, Rainbow and a host of others are aplenty. But the tales of those who carry the proto-metal, psych rock torch are still being written year by year. One band sure to write their own chapter in this hopefully never-ending musical tome is France’s The Socks.
The fairly new band with the ever so curious moniker has re-exploded onto the stoner rock scene with a self-titled debut album that’s sure to make more than a few people think they’ve uncovered some long, lost gem from the early 70’s or perhaps time traveled altogether. In 2010 The Socks released their debut EP to much acclaim, but to be frank, as good as that EP was, it was also lacking a certain unexplainable element that would separate them from the pack. In the corresponding years since, they’ve seemed to discover the magical formula for making music that will simply embarrass the pretenders in a scene that’s unfortunately been chock full of them for quite awhile now.
The album opens with the trippy “Lord of Illusion” with it’s thumping rhythm and surreal vocal elements that empty into a full blown riff machine that powers forward through eight more tracks of similar ilk. Tracks like “Some Kind Of Sorcery” and “New Kings” shows off their penchant for heavy blues wares that made the aforementioned Sabbath and Deep Purple such important forefathers of our current metal state. Meanwhile tracks like the epic “Holy Sons” cast a strong spotlight on the bands ability to write vivid, mind-altering, psychedelic rock that expands the chromatic aesthetics of a long lost age where acid was a musical generation’s version of the morning cup of coffee.
The stoner rock scene saw a huge explosion of talent in the 1990’s led by bands such as Kyuss, Fu Manchu and Nebula. Unfortunately, like all scenes, an explosion in popularity would lead to a glut of sub par talent getting scooped up by every label imaginable trying to find the ‘next big band’. Over the last few years thought there has been a resurgence of quality stoner rock popping up in some unexpected places. The Socks are at the top of that list of a new wave of stoner rock bands that are more focused on writing robust and powerful music than worrying whether or not commercial rock radio is paying attention to them. If this album is any indication then you should be expecting to hear a lot more from The Socks. That’s a good thing.
The Socks hits the streets on March 18 via Small Stone Recordings. In the meantime, you can check out the official video for the track “Some Kind of Sorcery”over at The Socks official website.
