NEBULA

Along with Queens of the Stone Age (reviewed here) Nebula are a second generation stoner band which is journalistic talk for saying they play rock music influenced in equal parts by Black Sabbath and marijuana but were not originally on the scene in the early nineties. Thankfully, like Queens of the Stone Age, the stoner rock they play has the emphasis on the rock rather than the stoner and therefore is energetic enough for me to call it good. Unfortunately, though, this album (their third, I think) is not as diverse as Queens of the Stone Age's zenith - Rated R. It is still a very, very solid, if unspectacular, rock album, though. The retro references are a little different to QOTSA's with Thin Lizzy and Deep Purple getting a look in. Certainly the keyboard orientated songs, like "Beyond", have a Deep Purple mk II essence about them whilst the guitarist, Eddie Glass, weaves a lot of fuzzed-up, wah-wah lead lines, not dissimilar to the approach on Thin Lizzy's Jailbreak album. Glass's vocals are fairly unspectacular but perfectly suited to what is a pretty self-restricting genre. Still, where Nebula elevate themselves above some other stoner bands is that they play a fair few numbers hard and fast. Certainly none more so than the opening "Do It Now", almost absurd in its minimalism. Take for example the chorus: "Let's do it - do it now". That's it. Such a stripped down song certainly leaves plenty of room for rock action though and the song is really taken at a frenetic pace. Almost certainly the best song on here. That old chestnut "Train Kept a-Rollin'" is also name-checked in the last verse, keeping with the retro feel. "Ignition" is also a markedly similar song with the almost identical chorus cry of "Let's start it up - get out of here". Still, it is another song that rocks. The slower ones either gravitate towards the sludgey Sabbath-esque stoner template, particularly the album closer "All The Way" which edges onwards for about eight minutes, or Deep Purple boogie. "Beyond" specifically being in my mind regarding the latter, and maybe "Shaker". They are both good songs, though. Very good. "Travelin' Mans Blues", as the name suggests, is a retro blues style number. Again it is hard to fault, as a song, but it does lack excitement. Pretty much the conundrum with this album is that by playing it so safe it fails to go either way. "Instant Gravitation" is probably the only song I can really fault for being less than memorable. Not much of a melody and the fade-out just leaves you a little puzzled. It's hard to explain (now there is a great contemporary song) but it just seems to end at the wrong moment making you think it is going to fade back in again but it never does. Odd. A final word of commendation will go to "Goodbye Yesterday" which is probably the most commercial song on the album. The fairly uninvolving verses giving way to a crashing riff and an urgent cry for the chorus. Maybe a little cliched but it rocks nonetheless. So not a great album but a very good one. Maybe it plays it a little too safe for my liking, though, as, after all, Queens of the Stone Age have already shown that you can make masterpieces out of stoner rock. It's a stupid genre anyway. Stoner? What's the fucking point?

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Email me at: jackfeeny@yahoo.co.uk