ALBUM REVIEW: Magma Trees – Wet Cactus

On the northern edge of Spain lies the autonomous region of Cantabria. With its beautiful capital city Santander being its pulsating heart of culture and history, this unique province is the home to the psychedelic rock four-piece WET CACTUS. Made up of Daniel Pascual Salvador (bass, vocals), Óscar Sánchez Marcano (guitar, vocals), Ernesto Díez Otí (guitar, vocals) and Jaime Pérez Herrera (drums), the band made their way onto the scene in 2013. 

Their self-titled debut album introduced their distinctly Spanish flavoured brand of psychedelic desert rock to the world. 2018’s Dust, Hunger And Gloom established the band as rising stars in the European desert rock scene, and after an enforced break in 2020 the quartet return with their energetic and super bluesy third album Magma Trees. This a concept album that explores the consequences of humanity depleting the Earth’s resources and human inaction in regards to climate change and reversing the damage they’ve caused. Thick and bulging with riffs, psychedelia and a plethora of complex emotions, Magma Trees is a soul-searching album. Shifting between rage and melancholy, sombreness and impassioned calls for change, WET CACTUS do not hold back. 

Magma Trees first grabs your attention with its gigantic wall of sound. Beefier and more bruising than ever, it effortlessly blows its predecessor Dust, Hunger And Gloom out of the water. There’s more of an emphasis on ferocious stoner riffs to match the rage that is held within the album’s lyrics, only venturing into psychedelic climes when there needs to be a brief moment of melancholy or quiet contemplation. 

The album is segmented into four sections, as if charting the various phases of the world’s depletion and transformation into a barren wasteland with the consequences of our actions being clear for all to see. Each interlude becomes more fiery and the songs that follow them gradually ramp up as the album progresses before reaching a cataclysmic, riff-filled conclusion. It feels like the enforced break has reinvigorated WET CACTUS, as their songs feel a lot more focused and cohesive alongside an increasingly relevant concept that shines a light on the eco-anxiety that sits within so many of us.

Musically, WET CACTUS shift through several realms of psychedelia, heavy blues, stoner and doom, with a splash of proggy groove thrown in for good measure. Gritty and earthy riffs are at the core of Magma Trees and they’re punctuated with pounding drums and driving basslines. Floating over the top are harmonised vocals that really hammer home the message in the lyrics with catchy melodies and anthemic choruses. There is a new found fieriness to the band’s songwriting, frothing at the mouth with raw determination and ambition to pummel you into the ground with punchy riff after punchy riff. WET CACTUS ask you to look around at the damage we’re doing and feel the weight of our decisions. 

The album begins with the rather ominously psychedelic I. The Long Escape…, before the record opens up with its first bruising riff on Barren Wasteland. With aggressive fuzz and powerful vocals, the song sets the tone for what is to come. Profound Dream keeps up the thunderous energy and injects a grungy vibe to proceedings alongside the song’s swaggering heavy blues. Mirage strips it back a bit and utilises the band’s psychedelic side. Reverberating, hypnotic guitar riffs swirls around you, conjuring up imagery of a hazy mirage as you struggle to find water in a lifeless desert. My Gaze Is Fixed Ahead once again ramps up the energy with amore hopeful vibe; a BLACK SABBATH-esque groove takes you on a journey through the vast and beautiful landscapes of the world as they are. 

II. …From The Lair Of The Majadero Man… brings back the ominous psychedelics of the opener before flowing into the beautifully sombre Million Tears. Self Bitten Snake comes crashing in with the speed of a MOTÖRHEAD track, and rains down riffs and cynical lyrics. Ominous psychedelics are built upon in the third interlude III. …And The Arduous Revival…, before the swaggering, groove-laden Hell Dweller unleashes its rage-filled riffing. Solar Prominence is an old school stoner anthem with blazing, bluesy riffs and bellowed vocals that make you want to get up and move. All the interludes have built up to the final track IV. … Of His Musical Ashes!, a frantic, and breathtaking two and a half minutes that sends the album out with a bang. 

WET CACTUS have brilliantly upped the ante with their third album, bringing fire and brimstone to the subject of climate change and the decimation of life caused by human hands. An album that will delight riff lovers globally, Magma Trees is a record that you definitely don’t want to miss out on. 

Rating: 8/10

Magma Trees is set for release on November 24th via Electric Valley Records. 

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