Hermano - ...Into The Exam Room CD review

Hermano is a band out of place, out of time.

Formed as a side project by stoner-rock god John Garcia of Kyuss, with a little help from some axe-mangling heavy hitters like David Armstrong (Black Cat Bone) and Mike Callahan (Disengaged), Hermano has taken on a life of its own since the band's playful 2002 debut.

Hermano's bona fide third studio effort, …Into The Exam Room, sounds a lot like the '70s to me ... a freewheelin' time when mastodons like Blue Cheer, Bang, Budgie, Dust, and the almighty Sir Lord Baltimore stomped their way to infamy, with amps set on stun and guitars wielded gracefully and brutally like some sort of samurai sword of old.

Hermano also shares some musical traits with early Black Sabbath – the tsunamis of distorted guitar; low-slung bass lines to create a heavy, atmospheric rhythmic foundation; and the use of explosive, unexpected drumbeats to pepper songs with machinegun fire.

Both bands rely on the deep cut of the monster riff, but that's where the similarities end. Sabbath had a world class screamer in Ozzy, a transcendent vocalist that could rise above the fray and take a song to greater heights. Hermano's Garcia often hides his vocals beneath the instrumentation in the mix, like a rattlesnake coiled beneath a bush waiting to strike. Both approaches are equally valid, and both ultimately destructive, hitting your cerebellum like molten high-velocity jumping-jacks launched from an angry anti-personnel mine.

…Into The Exam Room delivers the expected buzz & drone in spades, Hermano masterfully executing a plodding stoner vibe – comprised of scalpel-sharp guitar leads, larger-than-life riffs, and powerful rhythms – throwing in shards of Southern rock twang, sleaze-metal and garage-blues.

"Kentucky" is a strident rocker that blisters-and-peels like a hydrochloric cocktail, offering what is probably Garcia's most potent, up-front vocal performance, all swinging cocks, money talks, bullshit walks and Hermano rocks as the band gears up to near hurricane-strength with scorching leads and a funky strut. Ending the song with a scratchy, tongue-in-cheek "Theme From Deliverance" chicken-picking that devolves into "Yankee Doodle Dandy" is simply brilliant, brain-dead fun.

Another swinging gallop across the hardcore, heavy-metal funk horizon (trademark, T.M. Stevens), "Exam" boxes both yer ears at once with stunning six-string gyrations, wickedly rapidfire drumbeats and swaggering vox. "Dark Horse II" slows down the pace, Hermano pulling off a nigh-impossible tightwire trick in forging a metallic instrument from what is essentially an acoustic, mid-tempo, ballad-styled song. In the background, behind Garcia's almost-whispered vocals, however, psychedelic guitar lines dance like those damned bears you see on every filthy Deadhead's van, duckwalking their way into your consciousness.

Just when Hermano has all but lulled you, the listener, into a quiet complacency, they bring out the 10-pound-sledge in the form of "Left Side Bleeding," a romp-and-roller of ascending malice, sabertooth guitars tearing at your mid-section while the rhythm section peppers your noggin with hammer-blows. At less than three minutes, the song is a rabid roller-coaster ride that leaves you breathless. From this point on, the gloves are off and …Into The Exam Room is aiming for the knockout punch.

Twin guitars knit a messed-up, dangerous tangle of barbed wire and axle grease on "Hard Working Wall," the ammonia-fueled rocker sweating blood and spitting nails with a miasma of six-string sonics and explosive rhythms that change direction quicker and more often than a mob driver trying to shake a surveillance car. "Bona-Fide" brings a little exotica into the studio, squiggly raga-style guitar lines flowing beneath an odd rhythmic foundation and breathless vocals.

Leading off with a fantasia canvas painted with random sounds of children's voices, "At The Bar" slips into garage-blues mode, muted, understated guitar leads slipping in under the casual acoustic guitar strum, combined with lofty vox and a fine sense of '60s-styled psych-pop whimsy. On the other hand, "Our Desert Home" displays a Queens of the Stone Age-styled penchant for mad riffery, tossed in with psychedelic-stoner lyrics/vox, a crazed clashing wall of sound, and an undercurrent of fierce redneck Southern rock soul with a Jack Daniels chaser.

With its ever-changing moods and radical departure from the typical, traditional heavy metal template, …Into The Exam Room doesn't fit easily into any box or critical category. What Hermano has done, however, is impressive, the band creating one magnificent bastard of an album, with enough metallic stomp and edgy fretwork to satisfy the most adventurous listener, mixing brains and brawn to create the ultimate Frankenstein monster of sound and fury. (Regain Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy ...Into The Exam Room from Amazon.com)