Souldivider

After the promising The Big Relax EP last year, Sweden's Souldivider maintains their stoner rock stance with their debut full-length, Supersound City. Produced by Nick Blagona (Sea Of Green, Tea Party, 2B3), the album has an immediate Fu Manchu heft in opener "Time To Reflect," which elongates into a more melodic and deliberately poppy single in the title track. "Suburban Sin City" and the slower "A Long Way" follow along in the same vein, and "Things Undone" and "Soulshaker Queen" reinstate that Fu Manchu swing with Jonas Gustafson's gutsy pipes. The punkier "Dead Set Now" raises the aggression ante and "Confusion" strips that down to a bare boned rocker, like newer Corrosion Of Conformity. "An Even Side Of The Stone" replicates the guitar harmonics of Fireball Ministry but the rest of the record simply rehashes the previous tunes. Though they've proven themselves capable of wielding such riffage, Souldivider unfortunately is yet another addition to the general ennui of stoner-dom, fast becoming the most stagnant genre in rock.