It's hard to say if stoner rock on a whole tries to be "epic" in a way that other instrumental oriented metals do. Mostly they try to get as heavy and slow as possible while still rocking out. Raise the Red Lantern eschews thatââ¬Â¦mostly, and makes a pretty epic EP. Now when I say epic EP I don't mean it's three songs that are fifteen minutes long apiece, I mean the three songs that are Thunderfuck broach a pretty large spectrum of sounds.
"Thrower of Stones" starts off pretty fast-paced (well, fast for this sort of stuff) but peppered with some quirky dissonant leads that make you stop and say, "Stoner rock without mind numbingly stupid E chug? Why has no one thought of this before?" But rest assured, there is plenty of gratuitously heavy shit going on around here, it's just more thoughtful and well-placed than every twenty-something band that picked up Confederacy of Ruined Lives last year.
"Wings of Fury" comes in with a weird rock-metal amalgamation of leads and chugs, which go into some melody that makes you stop and say, "Stoner rock with something more than mind numbingly stupid E chug? Why has no one thought of this before?" The song has a strong rhythmic composition and by the time the chorus comes around a second time you find it a powerful respite to the generally all-heavy nature of the genre.
"Fucking Temptress," though is pretty fucking heavy. It has the breaks and slow/weirdness and the "right beneath the surface" melody of the rest of the disc, but takes a lot more of a direct approach. Or maybe it's not even all that direct, it's just structured.
It's hard for me to really get at the heart of what makes everything Raise the Red Lantern does - but I promise you haven't heard it before. They have a punk ethos and the brass balls of a seasoned stoner band AND they rock the fuck out. To me the closest reference point (even beyond loves of the word "Fuck") would be Planes Mistaken for Stars, which always radiate that aloof, grungy, strangely beautiful sound. Raise the Red Lantern certainly doesn't ape the same sound, but more of a similar foundation to build up a monumental wall-of-sound from. Plain and simple, these guys rock. If you are predisposed to the more thoughtful side of heavy music, Thunderfuck will provide you with fifteen minutes worth of challenging music, which is much more than anyone else is offering.
