Shooting Guns

Expectations are uncommonly high for the second full-length from Saskatoon, SK instrumental stoner metal sons Shooting Guns. Their last effort, Born to Deal in Magic: 1952-1976, earned a place on the 2012 Polaris Prize long-list, keeping critical ears open and eager for a follow-up. Fusing elements of stoner doom, psychedelia and sludge metal into a spacey, exploratory fantasy, Brotherhood of the Ram pushes their aesthetic further than their debut. Where Born to Deal had an intimate, internal quality — a specific kind of personal dissection and introspection — Brotherhood of the Ram is a much more exterior and energetic experience. If the last record evoked the act of asking a spirit guide to visit you in the safety of your smoke-soaked basement, Brotherhood of the Ram sounds like galloping off into the desert as that guide leads you on a grand adventure. "Motherfuckers Never Learn" could excellently soundtrack a chase scene in a supernatural b-movie, while the title track possesses a hot, contemplative casualness that conjures the feeling of sitting in a sauna, suffering in the heat and plotting. Parched and vast, with occasional cooling passages as revelatory and refreshing as desert rain, Shooting Guns prove with larger, more ambitious effort Brotherhood of the Ram that their nomination was no fluke.