Turtle Skull - Turtle Skull Review

Killer riffs, check! Driving beats, check! Tasty vocals, check! Get stuck into Turtle Skull's debut out below:

Turtle Skull is the rip-roaring self-titled debut from Sydney psych/stoner rockers Turtle Skull, out on Art as Catharsis Records. I was recommended this bad-boy by Sammy, percussion extraordinaire from our very own Pseudo Mind Hive and by golly, the boy's done good!

As the droning pound of Charlie Gradon's drums bring the album's opener 'No News is Bad News' to the fore, with a lick of heavy textured fuzz on top, you can't help but feel like this is an album straight out of the Josh Homme school of wizardry. In all of its near-seven minute entirety, NNiBN snakes and bends through stoner rock soundscapes all the way through to a more psych (make that heavy psych) finish, with wailing guitar tones and a rhythm section which just doesn't seem to let up.

Moving onto the second track, the slightly brighter and more cheerful 'Take it or Leave it', we see the band scale down the fuzz and take on a a cleaner psych-filled tone. With a light sprinkle of bells in the background of the percussion tracks, the song feels like a long stroll in the sweet New South Wales outdoors. The tempo picks up towards the end of the track and crescendos towards the climax of the track which eventually falls into a far dreamier soundscape as the tracks eponymous lyric is chanted over and again before falling away.

Turtle Skull is out on Art as Catharsis

Don't assume that's what's this album's all about though, cause 'Eden' kicks off with some heavy, and I mean heavy, blues riffs backed up with vocals reminiscent of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club but with more gloss. The gloss doesn't last long though, as we descend into some gutteral psychedelic guitar sounds atop the ever-droning bass and drums. Inject this straight into my veins please.

The album closer 'Empty Ships' starts off with whirring and gorgeously atmospheric before bringing in what sounds in essence like a simple enough guitar riffs, and while that may be, it undoubtedly rounds out the start of the track perfectly. The song continues in a beautifully relaxed vein, allowing the listener to get lost in the mellowness of it all as if they've cracked open a few cold ones with the boys in the peak of the British summer.

Yes, this is only a 4-track album, but don't let that fool ya, the shortest song just tops out over 6 minutes, while the album as a whole teases around the 30 minute mark - by no means a quickie!

The thing that Turtle Skull seem to master so well is letting their tracks draw towards what the listener thinks is a natural close, before bringing that nasty riff back harder. And let me clarify to avoid any confusion, that is one epic trick. All this leaves me a little like Oliver Twist - please Turtle Skull, can I have some more?

Favourite track: 'Eden'

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