MOTOROWL – Om Generator (2016)

“Uriah Heep On Drugs 2016 – Hooray For The German Metal Scene”

Review by Butch

“Psychedelic Doom Rock” is what you see on the band´s Facebook page info for this quite new German band. So it could well be a darkish, slow, moody, metal act with a passion for mushrooms that goes all wrong, topsy turvy. Luckily for you guys looking for simplicity and well oiled records, I do not see that much of looselessness here in OM GENERATOR. This album is just a great metal record for such a young band, rather out of their mind sometimes, quite proud of itself, very expansive and with a high target in mind. These kids want it all, and they seem prepared for the task. The voices in particular will sometimes remind you a relaxed Kiske. This is a high octane 70s hard rock with amazing twists and turns. It might seem they were born to do this stoner stuff, and it could well be irritating to see such young fellas nailing it, but you could also enjoy it. Plan and simple.

Up and running since 2014, Motorowl surely have a great sense of humour, when they label themselves as influenced by “Cheesy Black Metal”. A very yound and brilliant quintet, heavy riffs, amazing vocals, an honest tribute to bands from the 70s like Uriah Heep, but with a twist, speedy twist actually, that you will love. The Hammond here is almost King. Dan Swanö, who collaborated with the band in the mixes, tells this is a 70s and stoner mix that develops into the unexpected.

OM GENERATOR starts off with a sonically perfect intro. The drums accompany this song into a furious stoner metal with something else that reminds you of those European 90s bands like SPIRITUAL BEGGARS. It is a conscious longing for melodic perfection. It gets all lost in an intricate game of riffs and psychodelic stuff quite well performed. THE HIGHEST CITY Part I y II, two songs ( first one the choice for single and clip) could be a tribute to THE DOORS gone out of their hands, luckily for our metal ears. Tim´s distorted bass playing here is a must. OLD MANS MAZE will leave you speechless due to the riff in the middle of the song, a well constructed and built acceleration where the Hammond adds the extra spice. A gem of a track. Memories of Uriah Heep or Spiritual Beggars in a rather speedy version will come to mind. A fantastic track. ONE AND ZERO is a longish track, rather well develped, might be too perfect, it gives the sense that they try themseves in seeing how far they can get with the whole psychodelic stuff. BELOVED WHALE, such a strange song, starts off almost as a PEARL JAM midtempo that goes MASTODON suddenly. Intense, raw, rude, all out metal. WHITE HORSE shows you this records gets better as we listen to more songs. Hard rock of the great school, where Max voice will sometimes bring you ALICE IN CHAINS, and Martin Scheibe once more nails it. A perfect track, along with the previous two the best here.

SPIRITUAL HEALING, a 8 minute track, says good bye in slow motion, growing from a hard rock ballad ( Twist Into Form…) where the vocals bring you the memories of the sword and dragon bands until it decides MASTODON is a better update option.

MOTOROWL are a quite young band group of fellas who know perfectly what they do and where they are headed. They honor the 70s from a STONER platform that accelerates devilishly.They also get a fantastic production sound, expansive, hard, dense, and a MASTODON-PLAYING-URIAH-HEEP atmosphere at times that sounds plain perfect. This in itself should get you to listen to this band straight away, no questions asked. Should I say something negative, they raise a lot of expectations. Let´s wait till 2019 and see.