WAINGRO "III"

WAINGRO

"III"

Now bands are naming themselves after fictional bankrobbers. Waingro was a serial killer, thief and all around scumbag in the 1995 crime epic "Heat". He impressed these three Canadian dudes so much they named their band after him. Not only that, but all lyrics on "III" are inspired by "Heat:" and written from Waingro's point of view. That's a pretty original approach for a stoner/sludge band to take and is a welcome break from the expected yap about wizards, astronauts and weed.

WAINGRO the band play a thick and heavy brew mixing stoner riffs with a kind of punk aggression. The result sounds a lot like HIGH ON FIRE in places, with a raw and growling guitar tone and angry punk vocals.  You can hear that right off the bat with the raging "New Colony" and then things get even heavier and more downtuned on "Red Death"; the riff that starts this one could fall through a concrete slab. Right now WAINGRO has got my full attention. But as the album continues, the songs start to sound an awful lot alike and things get very monolithic. A welcome diversion is the cool instrumental "Monaco", which has a riff pattern different than anything else here as well as an interesting synth break.

The band is smart enough to avoid playing long and dragged out tracks. Everything here is pretty compact and to the point, another similarity to punk in the music. There's some pretty decent stoner guitar solos popping up throughout as well.

I think WAINGRO is onto something, but need to maybe exercise their imagination a bit more. I think they have the ability do it. When that happens, we will all feel the heat...

SLUDGELORD RECORDS

WAINGRO