Though between them they’ve spent years playing in bands like Human Remains, Cycle of Pain, Lord Sterling, The Atomic Bitchwax and The Ribeye Bros., drummer Bob Pantella and bassist Jim Baglino are probably best known at this point as the rhythm section of New Jersey stalwarts Monster Magnet. Likely that’s a job that comes packaged with a lot of ups and downs. You get to tour the world over and have a built-in high profile because of the band’s past success, but probably you don’t get to write much and there’s a lot of downtime. Hoping perhaps to make the most of that, Baglino and Pantella formed Riotgod a couple years back with guitarist Garrett Sweeny and vocalist Mark Sunshine. Their self-titled debut, in digipak/bonus track form, is out on Germany’s Metalville Records.

If you’ve been privy to Monster Magnet’s latest output, you at least have a basis for understanding where Riotgod’s Riotgod is coming from; they play a relatively straightforward (in terms of structure) brand of rock, not quite stoner, but definitely influenced by the heavy ‘70s and with some element of space to it, as the cover and tracks like “Light of the Sun” and “Collapsing Stars” would indicate. The material gets samey toward the album’s back half, but there is plenty of quality songwriting on display, and the production, while modern, isn’t nearly as flat as, say, the last Monster Magnet CD. Sunshine does a pretty good John Garcia on the Zeppelin-esque “The Time is Now,” and the chorus of “Collapsing Stars” proves to be a Riotgod high point, which is surprising for a semi-ballad amidst so many hard rockers, but led into by the atmospheric interlude “Omega,” it doesn’t feel out of place.

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As the rhythm section of New Jersey‘s long-running Monster Magnet, drummer Bob Pantella (also of The Atomic Bitchwax and Cycle of Pain) and bassist Jim Baglino (formerly of Lord Sterling and The Ribeye Brothers) have some time on their hands. Magnet is Dave Wyndorf‘s show and everyone knows it, so while he’s off writing, or not writing, a new album, they’re free to do what they want, which apparently is start the band Riotgod with guitarist Garrett Sweeny and vocalist Mark Sunshine.

I heard Riotgod‘s demo a couple years back and dug the hell out of it, so I’m definitely looking forward to their self-titled full-length, out August 17 on Metalville Records. Tremble before the PR wire’s might and wisdom:

In 2007 Monster Magnet‘s Bob Pantella and Jim Baglino created their own alternate universe under the Riotgod banner, inviting guitarist Garrett Sweeny and the estranged vocalist known only as Sunshine to travel the cosmos with them. Their achieved collective goal is Riotgod, their self-titled debut album (due August 17 on Metalville Records) containing some of the most energetic, recognizable and high quality hard rock this side of Mars.

Drummer and founding member Bob Pantella spoke about the formation of Riotgod:

“It was just Jim and myself, you know, just spending a lot of time on the road and we just had a lot of music that we wanted to create. With Monster Magnet, that’s not really the case for us sometimes. That’s more of Dave‘s thing, so we really just wanted to get together and do something a bit more on our own. There’s a lot of time off and personally we like to work a lot so, the desire to do more began building up over the last couple of years.

“We wanted to try our own thing and call our own shots with musical direction and stuff. We talked about it for years and it took a long time to really find the right people and get going. I’ve always had my recording studio, so it was easy in that aspect but it was hard to find the right ingredients — sounds, personalities and such. We know nothing’s perfect but you want to get people into the same head space. This is a great band to take us to a different level. Being in Monster Magnet is an awesome opportunity to launch other things for us.”

Track listing
1. Light of the Sun
2. Crusader
3. The Time is now
4. Horizon
5. 9th Life
6. Omega
7. Collapsing Stars
8. Pinata
9. Drone Station
10. Love it or Leave it
11. Rift
12. Sweet Kaos
13. High Time
14. Grand Design
15. Fangasm*
16. Minds Eye*
*Bonus tracks on digipak only