Black Elephant
Cosmic Blues
*** out of *****
The Italian heavy electric blues band Black Elephant's third full length is the aptly titled Cosmic Blues. Stoner rock with a retro vibe, the woolly record is full of effects, fuzz tone and head bopping riffs.
The four piece (Alessio Caravelli: lead vocals and lead guitar Massimiliano Giacosa: rhythm guitar Marcello Destefanis: bass guitar Simone Brunzu: drums) trudge along with massive beats and chords. The group can take the long and winding road like on "Helter Skelter" (an original despite it's name) or go for the quick hit as on the wah-wah laden brief instrumental "Chase Me" which ends too soon.
The vocals from Caravelli border on metal yelling as he accentuates the groove heavy tracks with screams that can become just as distorted as the feedback form the amps. On the over seven minute "Baby Eronia" the screams resemble a less defined early Chris Cornell as the band winds through the sonic wastelands. The track is one of the more successful on the record as the bass bumps along and guitar solos wipe side to side on your speakers.
The revved up instrumental "Cosmic Blues For Solitary Moose" begins with a distant guitar before thundering into the foreground while closer "Inno" contains both a prog and punk rock ethos built into it's long running time to wrap things up. From the retro cover art to the familiar heavy stomp the groups sound is straight out of the early seventies.
Black Elephant's style is straight ahead and some of the tracks can become repetitive and dull ("Walking Dead") but on the whole the band lumber along with power and passion. Fans of blues based heavy rock and roll (like Endless Boogie or Wolfmother to name two bands similar) will find a lot to like on Cosmic Blues.
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