ALBUM REVIEW: Chrome Neon Jesus – Ethyl Ether

South Africa’s ETHYL ETHER are one of the country’s best stoner rock acts. Despite only forming only a few years back, the band have already managed to create a significant buzz around them off the back of several great live shows and equally good music, most notably their The Pleasure Room album. The bands latest album, Chrome Neon Jesus, is the absolute apex of the bands output to date, and could very well see ETHYL ETHER cement themselves on an international scale.

The Smoke Waits for no Man is a great way to open the album. It’s a powerful instrumental piece with a soaring, riff drenched sound and solid rhythms, with a great, atmospheric undercurrent that it’s hard not to love. It’s a brilliant track that sets the listener up for the rest of the album really well. Ode is a much punchier, bass driven sound with some excellent, hazy lead guitar hooks and impressive, haunting vocals, making for a solid, beefy slab of stoner rock. It takes plenty of cues from classic hard rock, with a more visceral edge that gives it a slightly more aggressive sound. Under the Milky Way, with it’s lighter, more ethereal sound and subdued, yet memorable vocals give this a more ballad-like feel, without sacrificing any of the energy and hooks that have made the music so fantastic so far. It’s a beguiling, catchy piece of music that adds a little depth to the albums sound, acting as an early album highlight.

Therapy? takes the listener down a much more distortion heavy, hypnotic path than the first few songs, straying into full on stoner rock territory, with dense guitars, authoritative drumming and sludgy bass lines making for a thick and warm sound right out of the gate. The murky quality of the vocals only serve to make this songs sound even more impenetrable, injecting a glorious side into the rest of the music. Voodoo, a short, sharp shock of a song with a noticeably stripped back sound, is a lively hard rock affair with spirited and passionate vocals, making this fleeting track leave an impression on the album as a whole. Diamonds sees the heady, distortion driven sound begin to creep back in, with a noxious blend of amazing lead guitar flourishes, singalong vocals and tight, thunderous percussion making for a large and groove-laden sound with one foot firmly planted in 70’s rock.

Cold Black Soul, a frenzied, bluesy number, is another brief, yet brilliant outing, making full use of its short time span leaving a huge mark on the album. It’s got some impressive guitar and vocal work, underpinned with a crashing, juggernaut drum beat, resulting in a great, monstrous rock monolith. Faces has all the hallmarks of a future fan favourite, with a vast, mid-tempo sound that gives a powerful kick, with plenty of hints at Indie music thrown into the mix, making this song sound like a heavier, slicker version of a band like KASABIAN, giving this album yet another high point that is instantly memorable. Is Anybody Different? carries this formula forward, with jangling, cleaner tones and fantastic vocals driving the sound and giving this a borderline ballad feel. The vocals in particular really make this track, at times outstripping the guitars in terms of hair-raising grandiosity. Higher Than Drugs, another vocal focused offering with subdued, extremely epic guitars, and incredibly catchy, memorable vocals that blends hard rock and indie elements, with a varied percussive style and well placed female vocal accompaniments giving this a much more eclectic, imaginative sound, bringing this album to a close on one of the albums more seminal moments.

Why the hell is ETHYL ETHER not signed to a major label? Chrome Neon Jesus is an album that is worthy of a world beating rock band, proving to be a catchy and intriguing tour de force from start to finish, with the final three offerings on the album elevating this album from being great to being fantastic.

Rating: 9/10

Chrome Neon Jesus is out now via self release. 

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