A lot can happen to a band in four years. It can form, it can break up, it can lose members, gain members, release albums, tour – just about anything really. In the case of Polish rockers Elvis Deluxe, what they did in the four years since making their debut with the full-length Lazy is undertake a massive stylistic growth that now shows itself on Favourite State of Mind (Harmony Records), their second album. Where Lazy was charming if generic stoner rock, Favourite State of Mind finds the Warsaw outfit exploring a host of influences while also expanding on some of the ideas from last time. Stylized punk, heavy psychedelia, driving rock and even a bit of hardcore all show up across Favourite State of Mind’s 12 tracks, and the record is genuinely surprising in terms of how well it flows and how coherent and confident the band sounds. With the diverse vocals of bassist Ziemba, a range of atmospheres is cast and Elvis Deluxe feel just as much at home in one as in another, and as a result, the album is one that not only warrants repeat listens, but utterly flourishes in them.

The aptly-titled “Intro” is instrumental guitar strummed by drummer Miko, and it sets the stage for a lot of Favourite State of Mind. Soft ringing notes are soon swallowed in a mass of feedback, and the transition from that song into “Let Yourself Free” is just jarring enough to make you look back at it. Ziemba adapts his vocals to the more punkish material on the record the way Queens of the Stone Age might have switched between Josh Homme’s melodic singing and Nick Oliveri’s rougher edge — essentially doing the work of both of them, and doing it well – and “Let Yourself Free” finds its strongest statement in the intricate layering of both the guitars of Mechu (since out of the band and replaced by Bert Trust of Castor Fiber) and Bolek and Ziemba’s bass and vocals. The bassline to “Let Yourself Free” isn’t really a focal point, but almost immediately on “Out all Night,” it’s Ziemba providing the song’s sway and swagger, the guitars layering a memorable lead over the chorus with Cieju’s effective organ work. Already, roughly six minutes into Favourite State of Mind, it’s clear Elvis Deluxe are a completely different band than they were four years ago. They’ve grown out of the trappings of their genre and into something more individual and altogether more engaging. “Out all Night” uses fuzz distortion but by no means relies on it, and like the album as a whole, gets a boost from the natural-sounding production.

Their momentum continues through the catchy, more straightforward riff rocking “Fade Away,” where Ziemba backs himself through a call and response chorus that’s one of the strongest on Favourite State of Mind. “Fade Away” is the first of several tracks to feature guest guitarist Kazan, and as Ziemba affects a falsetto bridge leading into the last chorus, the heavier crunch of the track feels all the more appropriate moving into the intro of “This Time,” which sounds not so much borrowed from Kyuss’ “100 Degrees” as built on top of it. The tonality and some of the rhythm is the same, but Miko takes a different approach from Brant Bjork on the drums and the song soon turns the riff on its head. Ziemba takes a more passive approach vocally, riding the song’s formidable groove and allowing the music more space to breathe than on “Fade Away” or any of the cuts preceding. In terms of the structure of Favourite State of Mind, this is the moment in the classic live show where the band has already opened strong and work to shift – not dip – the progression. They keep that all-in-one-room feel alive (I don’t know if that’s how they actually recorded, but one can almost hear the drum sounds bouncing off a high ceiling), and as “This Time” transitions into “Out There,” it’s clear the track was positioned not just to play off the energy of the opening trio that followed “Intro,” but also to set the stage for the more psychedelic side of Elvis Deluxe.

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A little over a year ago, I did an On the Radar profile series on the Polish stoner scene, and one of the acts highlighted was the goat-obsessed instrumental five-piece Belzebong. Of all the bands (and you can find them at that link, so I don’t need to retread the list) I wrote about over the course of however many weeks it was, Belzebong might have been the most stoned. All riffs, all the time, just locked-in grooves, amp fuzz and heady jams. No claim to anything more than that.

The demos were kind of rough from what I recall, but Belzebong‘s first album, which they released this past Wednesday — 4/20, in case you missed it — is clear and big-sounding, an excellent showcase for the band’s riffy focus. They named the record Sonic Scapes and Weedy Grooves, and despite the grammar, that’s about as apt a description as I could come up with for what they have on offer with the four tracks.

Sonic Scapes and Weedy Grooves is available for free download at Belzebong‘s Bandcamp page, and anyone looking for a riff-fix this Friday afternoon will want also to direct their attention to the player below, where the whole record can be streamed:

Part of the growing and fertile Polish stoner rock scene, Satellite Beaver make no bones about their love for all that’s heavy on their most recent self-released demo Trip Outside Your Mind. The band formed in 2008 and are definitely still figuring out their sound, but like a lot of the nascent acts in and around Warsaw rock city, the four-piece display a genuine affection for the lineage of stoner and other riffy-type rock, and that goes a long way toward establishing their charm on the three-song release.

The title Trip Outside Your Mind might lead you to believe we’re going to be dealing with far-out space reverb psychedelia, 13-minute expansive songs that delve into Hawkwindian self-indulgence, but Satellite Beaver are more earthbound than that, rocking like Earthride or a half-speed High on Fire, the vocals of guitarist Simon the Beaver leading the arguments in favor of the comparison. On opener “Fat Man in Wellingtons,” he and his fellow Beavers (each member takes “The Beaver” as their last name) begin with about 45 seconds of noise before actually starting the song – a bold move on a release that’s only 15 and a half minutes total – but once they get going, the groove is palpable, the tones are thick and the vibe is stoned. Fellow guitarist/backing vocalist Tom the Beaver contributes to the heft of “Fat Man in Wellingtons” and the quicker “OD&D” with bassist Marian the Beaver and drummer Mad the Beaver proving more than capable of following the guitars wherever they may take the songs along whatever path they choose to get where they’re going.

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I guess if there’s a three-year time span between recording your album and sending it out for review, you earn the right to call it Lazy. Such is the case with Poland’s Elvis Deluxe, who might be the most Swedish group of rockers Warsaw has ever produced. The old-school four-piece (vocals, guitar, bass, drums) are heavily indebted to the first couple Dozer records, and of course Kyuss is always a comparison point, but there are moments where their individuality flourishes, and in many ways, those are the strongest of the record.

Still, you tread dangerous ground calling an album Lazy, and fortunately for Elvis Deluxe, the songwriting isn’t. At its most derivative – parts of “Extraterrestrial Hideout Seeker” and “Sleep Brings No Relief” – the material is still well done, recorded smoothly and crafted with sincerity rather than mocking irony. A song like “Ready to Rage,” with its handclap-ready punkish snare hits, isn’t necessarily original, but at no point on the album do Elvis Deluxe seem like innovation is their first priority. Rather, Lazy, which was released in 2007 on Get by Records, vibes like a bunch of guys having a good time rocking out, and that’s exactly its appeal.

It doesn’t sound out of date for being a few years old, or at least no more than it means to. The stoner rock sound is built on homage, so although Dozer hasn’t sounded like this in a decade, it’s not like Elvis Deluxe’s sound is passé. Hell, I don’t know if it was ever “cool” to begin with. Who cares? It rocks.

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Poland’s Black River are a bunch of dudes playing dudely dude rock for an audience of dudes. And just because I don’t feel that last sentence had enough “dudes” in it to properly convey the ultimate dudeliness of Black River: Dude.

Seriously, the Warsaw double-guitar five-piece’s second album, Black ‘n’ Roll (out in Europe last year on Mystic Productions, now seeing US release through Armoury Records), is rife with beer-raising über-rock that’s unrepentantly pop-oriented, but not in the American commercial sense. You’re not going to see Black River doing Burger King ads anytime soon, but it’s the kind of heavy rock that’s viable in Europe, and with a lineup featuring members of Behemoth and Dimmu Borgir, it comes with a built-in interest factor for fans of either band and an automatic leg-up as far as getting the name out is concerned.

While it’s easy to see a crowd of burly Eurodudes in leather jackets rocking out to songs like “Isabel” and the punkier “Black ‘n’ Roll,” equal parts Misfits and Bad Religion, I have a hard time imagining an American audience for Black River. In many ways, the songs are too commercial to really be underground, and too underground (and frankly, too hard rocking) to be commercial, straddling a line that’s been the undoing of many quality acts through the years. Still, the songwriting is solid, the music is unpretentious — the central riff of “Breaking the Wall” is enough to justify the rest of the record on its own – and just because a band doesn’t meet this or that role is no reason to count them out. Black ‘n’ Roll has a couple highlight moments that more than make up for any culture clash.

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It’s always (at very least) fascinating when players from the more extreme end of metal — death, black, etc. — decide to take on doom or stoner rock. Remember the first Sahg album? There’s a whole bunch of bands like that out there. Not all as good as Sahg, of course, but acts like Chrome Division, Helltrain — even Spiritual Beggars could fit into the category if you wanted them to badly enough.

Black River features members of Behemoth and Dimmu Borgir, among others, and I think what I like best about their video for the song “Lucky in Hell,” is that, although it features a good looking female protagonist, it’s not your typical rock and roll bullshit misogyny. I’ll be honest, if it was, I probably wouldn’t be posting it.

Here’s “Lucky in Hell,” followed by PR wire info about Black River‘s sophomore outing, Black ‘n’ Roll, which is due out in the States next month:

All-star band Black River, which features within its ranks members of Behemoth, Dimmu Borgir, Neolithic and Rootwater, are proud to unleash their first video for the song “Lucky in Hell” which comes off their upcoming new full-length Black ‘n’ Roll. The video features one of the most talented and popular Polish actresses — Magdalena Cielecka — who’s won several important awards over the years at cinema festivals in Edinburgh, Geneva, Tokyo and Gdynia, among others.

Black ‘n’ Roll is Black River‘s second full-length and offers 45 minutes of gritty, bar-ready riff rock anthems! The long player was recorded at Studio Sonus and Studio Gdansk, engineered by Malta (Behemoth) and debuted at #20 on the official Polish charts upon its European release earlier this year. Said guitarist Kay of the offering: “It has the taste of good whiskey, it smells with sweat of girls dancing at the strip bar and with odor of car tires burnt on tarmac.”

Black ‘n’ Roll will be released in North America by Armoury Records/Eagle Rock on July 20.

Black River is:
Taff – Vocals (Neolithic, Testor, Geisha Goner, Rootwater)
Orion – Bass (Behemoth, Neolithic, Vesania)
Daray – Drums (Dimmu Borgir, Neolithic, Vader, Masachist, Faust et al)
Art – Guitars
Kay – Guitars (Kayzen, Kashtany, Neolithic)

Normally, as a matter of principle, I don’t do On the Radar pieces about signed bands, but in the case of long-running Warsaw outfit Corruption, it only seems fitting. They’ve been together since the early ’90s, gradually morphed from death/doom into the stoner rock they play today, and if there’s one single band who laid the groundwork for the development of the Polish scene and the bands covered in this series — as well as acts we won’t get to, like The Vagitarians, Death Denied and Bullshit Baby — it’s them. Before there was a Polish scene to speak of, there was Corruption.

Next year the band celebrates its 20th anniversary, but for now, they’ve just released their album in five years in Poland called Bourbon River Bank that, at least judging by the songs they’ve added to MySpace, is full of brash riffage, Satan and boozing. To celebrate, Corruption just recently completed an 11-date tour of their homeland, hitting Warsaw, Gdansk, Krakow and Olsztyn along the way. Bourbon River Bank has a May release date set for the rest of Europe.

Of course, there’s no real way to tell without asking each individual band now in the scene how much of an influence Corruption has had on them — and no, I’m not going to do that — but I’m willing to bet it’s tangible. To be successful, every group of bands needs one act everyone can look up to, who’ve been around a while, who can draw people out to shows, who can give recording advice, etc., and given their relative experience as compared to a lot of the bands with whom they’re sharing stages, it’s easy to see Corruption in that role. The real bonus is that, by all accounts, they haven’t stopped unleashing liver-blasting rock and roll in the meantime.

In our fourth and penultimate On the Radar concerning the burgeoning stoner rock scene in Poland (previous installments here, here and here), we take a look at the band Fifty Foot Woman, who seem to separate themselves from the desert rock of their peers with a heavier, more bikerly style, like modern Orange Goblin with some slightly more stoner flourishes. Their MySpace has several tracks new and old, and the differences between them are palpable.

For example, “The Wall” is newer and sounds it. The production is clearer, with more separation between the instruments. More professional, in other words, whereas “The Hitchhiker,” “The Black Hills” and “The Blessing of NonExistence” are rawer, more demo quality, but nonetheless possessing a charm of their own. Like the other bands covered in this series, Fifty Foot Woman have a straightforward approach to songwriting and will be familiar stylistically to those who’ve been around the scene for a while, but their weightier approach does stand them out.

Of the free recordings I’ve heard from the four-piece, I think I prefer the trio of demo tracks to “The Wall,” the cleaner production of which seems to (at least when heard in streaming quality) push the gruff vocals too far forward and lose some of the thickness in the guitars. “The Wall” is also shorter and may be typical of a shift in the band’s attack, opting for tighter, more condensed material, but again, that’s not really the issue. They execute the style well enough, it’s really the way the song is produced — and it’s not necessarily that it’s bad, I just dig the other material more.

Toward the end of last year, Fifty Foot Woman made “The Wall” available as a free digital single, and anyone wishing to check that out can do so here, but I wouldn’t urge that as a starting point so much as the other streaming tracks on the MySpace page. Either way you choose to check them out, consider doing so recommended. Like their countrymen in Broken Betty, Belzebong, The Vagitarians, Satellite Beaver and others, Fifty Foot Woman are well worth keeping on the radar.

If there’s one thing that stands out about the Polish scene we’ve been exploring one band at a time (past installments here and here), it’s a universal hunger to be heard. Hell, the main reason this whole thing kicked off was because one of the dudes in Satellite Beaver was like, “Hey man, you need to check out all these other bands too,” when I reviewed Luna Negra. Likewise, Belzebong, an instrumental outfit from Poland, dropped a line in the comments and said to hit up their MySpace. I’m nothing if I’m not the trained monkey of stoner rock and doom metal. Just tell me in what direction to dance and I’m there.

For what it’s worth, Belzebong are the most definitively stoner of the acts from the Polish scene we’ve yet encountered. The two tracks on MySpace are instrumental (with samples) and rely on hyper-grooving riffs to carry the band. It’s a formula that should be familiar to fans of Bongzilla and Electric Wizard, as well as the sundry other acts whose sound basically rounds out to “riffs plus” — riffs plus vocals, riffs plus samples, riffs plus solos, and so on. The guitar is definitely the vocal point, and there are solo/lead lines running throughout “Bong Thrower” that are varyingly lyrical, but Belzebong are a riff band. Any changes they make or flourishes they add, their songs are still based around riffs and riffs and, well, riffs.

It seems like a familiar formula and it is, but like Satellite Beaver, Broken Betty and Luna Negra, if Belzebong aren’t groundbreaking so much in their sound, there are several explanations behind it. First and foremost, there wasn’t a Polish scene to speak of before these bands came along. Consider the Scandinavian lineage of heavy music. Sure, these bands would have access to outsider rock from the internet and word of mouth, buying records, etc., but that’s nowhere near the same as having your own scene. Second, Belzebong (and everyone else covered in this series) are a demo band, just getting their start. If they still have developing to do, that’s to be expected. For what it’s worth now, they’ve got a goat-devil holding a bong with their logo and they’ve got the will to do some serious ear-damage. That’s a pretty killer start if you ask me.

If you missed vol. 1 of “On the Radar: The Polish Scene,” it’s right here.

One listen to the live version of “Mighty Sasquatch,” which Warsaw four-piece Satellite Beaver have posted on their MySpace, and Kyuss becomes an immediate reference point. This holds up throughout the other two tracks, “Nitro Steam Engine” and the cleverly titled “OD’n'D,” though the vocals on the middle of the three songs more brings to mind a Queens of the Stone Age track with Nick Oliveri singing lead. Vocalist guitarist Simon the Beaver (all band members’ names end with “the Beaver“) comes across pretty roughly here, but one imagines the case to be different on studio recordings as it so often is.

Satellite Beaver and Broken Betty, as well as several of the other acts we’ll be looking at as this series on the Polish stoner scene unfolds, are still developing their sound, still deciding what sonic elements they want to bring to the table in terms of where to take their songs and just how they want to manifest their interpretations of the inviolable riff. For now, Satellite Beaver — rounded out by guitarist/backing vocalist Tom the Beaver, bassist Doman the Beaver and drummer Mad the Beaver — offer these three live songs as a demonstration of what they’re trying to accomplish, and particularly on “OD’n'D,” they succeed where many more established acts don’t in making the conventions of the stoner genre the basis from which they form their own style, rather than the style itself.

But of course, it’s early. Any ground-floor types out there, I hope you’re paying attention to this stuff, because in about five years’ time, when some of these bands will have broken up, traded members and hopefully all come out in possession of heightened musical awareness for the trials they’ve endured, Poland is going to be an epicenter of kickass rock and roll. If they can keep up the energy and not get mired in the kind of bullshit that drags down so many other quality acts, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if Satellite Beaver grew into one of the scene’s strongest outfits.

One of my favorite things in the world is being turned onto new bands. It doesn’t get any better than that, and I was fortunate enough to recently be pointed in the direction of a burgeoning scene in Warsaw, Poland, centered around several quality unsigned bands making a go of it. Hence the “Vol. 1″ above, because there are going to be a couple of these as we spotlight different groups from the area. Just so there’s no confusion, I’m hearing these acts for the first time myself, so we’re learning together. Which is nice.

Broken Betty (from the end of whose name I can’t shake a “ram ba lam” even though I know it doesn’t belong there) hail from Gdynia, on the Gulf of Danzig in the north of Poland. The trio plays a ’90s-informed style of heavy rock that has what in the US would probably be considered a commercial sheen thanks to the clean vocals of bassist Dziablas, but they don’t cross the line into nü-metal nonsensities at all on the songs posted at their MySpace page.

Instead, they show a capable use of melody in both the music and the vocals — Pacior handling the guitar and Seba the drums — and a recognizable cohesion as a unit. Their self-released EP came out last year, and is posted in its entirety for free on the aforementioned MySpace, but if you’re looking for a place to start, I’d recommend “Pull in Like a Black Hole,” which has some more stoner elements than some of the other songs and isn’t afraid to let them show. Occasionally the material dips into Helmet-style noise, but Broken Betty seem equally apt to keep that in check in favor of a more straightforward approach.

Whatever they’re doing, it’s not half bad. Like their recently-reviewed countrymen, Luna Negra, Broken Betty aren’t redefining the genre in which they reside, but given that they’re part of a small scene that — so far as I know — is the first generation in Poland to take on this style, their actions are commendable nonetheless, and definitely worth keeping on the radar.

You know and I know that I’m a wordy bastard. I don’t make any attempt to hide it. Hey, this is my site. If I can’t be verbose here, what’s the point? You don’t have to read it all, and if you do anyway, thanks. If not, I understand. If this was just some schmuck’s corner of the internet I went to for tour dates and the like, I might not want to make my way through a 900-word Citay review either. I understand.

The basic question is, “Can I give at least a semi-comprehensive review of a CD in 50 words or under?” Let’s find out:

Luna Negra, Soundproof Demo
Looks like Natas, sounds like Kyuss, comes from Poland. Unsigned and instrumental. Desert riffy, definitely missing a vocalist here and there. Two guitarists, neither could sing? Points for calling their label Mustache Ministry, but nothing sonically mind-blowing. Middle of the road stoner. Maybe forgettable, but not terrible.

Grand total: 47 words.

Of course, this was a lot easier to do with Band X‘s demo than it would be with a release of greater consequence, but give me a break. I’ve dropped 350 words on 7″s with two songs on them, so it works both ways. In any case, experiment successful. It can be done. But you know, don’t expect it to be on any kind of regular basis.