"Ok, this changes everything. These guys have been shredding fret boards for a while now, and they have found their groove with Shivering King & Others. All this talk of Black Sabbath, and Zeppelin, Neil Young...it's just scratching the surface of this utmost fantastic band. This brings to mind an image of the Maryland based band, Clutch, getting lifted with Brian Jonestown Massacre, and the guys from MC5 in the living room of the dark, and comfortably psychedelic house of Blue Cheer. Dead Meadow have come to bring the jams to your living room, so sit down, turn it up, fire up, and let these guys show you a damn good time. It has been a long time coming, and is so powerful it slaps you in the face and demands to stay.Check out everything this band has to offer, other albums include: Their self-titled Dead Meadow, Howls from the Hills, and of course, Got Live If You Want It."
A new one from D.C.'s sledgehammer trio
Edwin W. Skinner | Rocky Mount, NC United States | 06/12/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Another (in addition to "Got Live if You Want it") top-notch release from the the D.C. stoner rock/70's metal/space-punk group . . . Like Neil Young stuck in perpetual "My My, Hey Hey (Into the Black)" mode, these guys walk around with the Hammer of the Gods hanging from their pockets, hitting you with skronky, feedback-laden guitar that flattens you like a semi hitting a squirrel. So what if you can't understand all the lyrics? To a great degree, that's sorta the point: this is mood music for folks in a not-so-great mood. The words mean very little when the aural assault is as powerful as this. Picture your favorite Led Zep instrumental passages, done up by a trio of pissed-off, melancholy kids with a strong Neil Young/howlin' wolf (the animal, not the blues great) fetish. Worth every penny.If you're interested in the "Got Live . . ." review, check it out here at Amazon. Still working my way back to the early stuff . . ."
Another flawless masterpiece from Dead Meadow.
Parkansky | Morehead, KY USA | 05/23/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Although it certainly wasn't bad, I was a little dissapointed with Dead Meadow's 2nd album, Howls From The Hills. It sounded a little too forced and dragged on, not in a good way. However, I knew that they had potential to make another masterpiece, much like their flawless debut. Well, they definetly went in the right direction with their 3rd album and first for Matador, Shivering Kings and Others. This is from, start to finish, a great album with absolutly no filler. From the drugged haze of I Love You Too to the psycadelic beauty of Raise The Sails, there's not a wasted note on this album.
This is also Dead Meadow at their most versatile. The new version of Everything's Goin' On is a cross between Black Sabbath and Spiritualized. Good Moanin' is a great track, with its heavy opening riff and long dragged out solos. At the end, there is a weird whistle playing an eerie melody. It fits the song very well.
The last 4 songs are good to go to sleep to. The title track has an interesting eastern-tinged melody, and Heaven is a great slow-paced ballad. Dead Meadow has definetly made a great album, and I hope they continue on this winning streak."
They came to drop bombs
Colin L. Sangster | Los Angeles, CA United States | 07/06/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Dead Meadow set a new high water mark for lunacy delivered with absolute sincerity. More cohesive, focussed, and mind-numbingly heavy than all their previous LPs put together, and that is saying alot. Like Spacemen3 and Black Sabbath getting stuck in the Brundle teleporter and coming out the other an improbable amalgam. On the one hand, ludicrous, on the other, so very very right. Right now."
Molten sonic lava crashing into waiting waves
John L Murphy | Los Angeles | 04/27/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I heard "Feathers" first, and have backordered "Got Live," so in the meantime, "Shivering King" will fit nicely. As listeners seem to agree, this one's denser in tone, perhaps murkier in vocals and definitely in production, and it moves like a lumbering beast especially during the first half. The success of the first six or seven songs depends on your mood. This is not background music, and I doubt if I'd want to wake up with this cranked up unless I wanted to blare the aural equivalent of a hangover.
But, if you're ready for it, SK&Others (as with Dead Meadow's other work) takes its time to burrow deep into your reveries. It's carefully layered and the arrangements belie any stoner stereotype: this is smart music for smart people. Dead Meadow as always moves only to its own beat--it presents songs that are in no rush to get wherever they'll eventually rumble, shove, traipse, and meander. In fact, I wish the instrumental track (#5) was much longer, as this makes a welcome respite from the thick mire that the band brews up and plunges you in relentlessly for the first half.
By song seven or definitely eight, the acoustic guitars signal an uplift in the delivery that's well-timed. From this point what was a four-star album turns five-stars, for this combines--reminiscent of moments on "Feathers," Led Zep III's folk-meets-metal-meets-blues-meets psychedelic melange. The last part of this album stretches out and carries you along. (4.5 stars, but I have to round up for credit for the fine ending to this album that lifts it high above its promising beginning.)
The visual equivalent for this album: picture the volcanoes on Hawai'i's Big Island as they rumble and crash into the Pacific, molten lava hissing and spewing as it ripples out in terrifyingly beautiful waves."