Dead Meadow

Now basking in the L.A. sun, DC’s Dead Meadow extend their never-ending head-trip with Old Growth, which delivers more of the same sprawling psych to tide over any stoner’s appetite. The move to California has done little to their formula, as the mind-expanding trio still turn out clean, bluesy riffs, beefy grooves and space-bound jams. Over their first four albums, the band progressed but on album number five, Dead Meadow are a little less focussed, almost as if they’re at some kind of standstill. Sure, it still rocks better than most modern psych albums but it would have been nice to see Dead Meadow forging paths like Black Mountain, or exploring sludgier terrain like Bardo Pond, and that’s just not the case here. Previous album Feathers ended with killer jam "Through the Gates…,” and with Old Growth, Dead Meadow fail to put that kind of mustard on any of the songs. Solid and consistent but disappointingly, this one just gives more of the "old” with no "growth.”