Album Details

• Artist: Chingalera
• Album: In The Shadow Of The Black Palm Tree
• Label: Pacific
• Year of Release: 2007
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: patchen on 2007-12-23

LA stoner metal produced by Steve Albini; who could ask for anything more? That’s not a knock, really: LA does weird things to a band’s head, and in this case inspires Chingalera to do some major social bitching; stoner metal is one of the more consistently interesting metal genres, and Albini at least knows how to both turn up the volume on the mikes and produce major glorious sludge. For just a five track disc (this comes with a jaunty live DVD, “That Little Fucking Thing Over There”) “In The Shadow of The Black Palm Tree” packs in a lot of action. Virtually all the tracks are upwards of nine minutes which gives to plenty to time to load up on stimulants and to explore droning, riff heavy beasts such as “Trust Us True Believers” and “Better Living Through Chemistry.” “The Occidental Apology” features the above mentioned political rant, but it is mostly buried underneath slow, echoing burly grime.Chingalera have chops, humor, opinions, and carve themselves a whole lotta space on each track with which to indulge. This will not make your forger Acid King or 16, but it is, as Mercury Morris would say, in their neighborhood.

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