Black Charger – Small Town

 

Black Charger – Small Town
Clostridium Records / Broken Music – 2025
Stonerrock
Rated: ****

This is stonerrock. The primordial kind. The one that was born when the Kyuss punks decided to start doing their own thing. And there isn’t any doubt in my mind that you, reading these words, love Kyuss and that the boys from Black Charger love Kyuss and that you can hear everything you love and they love about Kyuss in the sound of these new punks that started jamming under the name Black Charger. Yes! This is the sandblasted, scorched, stonerrock straight out of the desert variety. But Black Charger hails from Osnabruck, Germany and the three are about to release their first album Small Town through Clostridium Records. After having jammed together since 2018 and releasing a succession of some five singles since 2024, they will issue that first full-sized ten track, forty one minute long trek through the sundried landscape on October 31st. Followed by a vinyl version a day later….

Well.. Low slung guitars produce even lower tones, and the Black Charger axe-slingers must have them down on their ankles. Just like the Kyuss godfathers used to do. And not sure how vocalist Christian Bögelmann does this, but the vocals have both Bjork and Garcia moments in them and that adds an extra twist in making this one hell of an album for the lovers of pure stonerrock. Lyrics wise, there might be something to gain here and there; but the low end is so beautiful! And as Gimme A Run rumbles over you, the starting vocals ascending, the repeated refrain building, the universal nod becoming truly universe spanning, you cannot help but fall in love with Black Charger. It’s one of the singles already released back in 2024. And it’s not until the sixth track Walk With Me we are treated to a new ditty, more expansive, explosive and implosive at the same time, firing on all cylinders and as furious as a mile wide exhaust pipe. And a drummer that stays cool, keeps time, pace and goes on relentlessly, with a leering grin, but steady as she goes, while both bass and guitar go absolutely berserk in reverb layering on top of reverb. What a wonderful song. Super Ego, shoots out of the gate, got a minor skater and punk vibe going on, and that’s perfect, cause we’re all desert punks here. Bass, how low can you go? Well, judging from the opening in Welcome, lower than a freaking earthquake! Snakedance sounds loose and yet incredibly tight, weaving in an out of control, like a Cobra waiting to strike. Another extraordinarily infectious song. You wanna dance to this! And they end their first romp through the desert landscape with the slower Red Picture With Horses. Cause well, you have to have a song about Horses nowadays. A touch of sliding psychedelics enters the scene, impenetrable grainy, lifted by a wistful guitar melody, majestic bass work and beautiful drums. This is stonerrock. The primordial kind. Atavistic by default, but not born out of nostalgia, but born out of the pure love for the stonerrock genre… 

(Written by JK)

You can listen to the first five singles over on bandcamp right now and get all fired up for the album dropping on October 31st! 



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