Album Details

• Artist: Beehoover
• Album: Heavy Zooo
• Label: Exile on Mainstream
• Year of Release: 2008
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: patchen on 2008-12-21

About six songs into this snarling beast, German bass/drums duo Beehoover, throws in a curious loop. After several brusing, tunes dominated by fat riffs that lock into a tight groove and never let go, there are a couple of songs, "Spirit and Doom" and "My Funeral Procession" that are almost reed-thin in their silence; they aren't so much ballads or drone as quiet, plaintive whispered secrets. Coming on the heels of such beefy genuis as "Solitude in Bloom," "Pain Power" and "Esophagus Overdrive," they are shocking. Though the rest of "Heavy Zooo" kicks it out once again, it is that jarring interlude that shows Beehover to be more than just an assaulting team. They are that, but their depth goes beyond the majesty of the brutal riff.

Apparently the band recorded this over the course of a few weeks, beginning each session at 6am. The surreal, I'm guessing blurry kickoff to the sessions have created an undercurrent of casual, surreal menace. Stripped of typical metal pretensions, Beehover liberates the power chord and places it in more crazed environments. While they retain certain doom/sludge/Sabbath benchmarks, the band explores the extended riff with their own brand of passion and mental disturbance. This is a keeper, and one of the best heayc records of the year.

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