From the first Kyuss-style heavy riff at the beginning of "Buick Electra" to the last lines of the slowed down "Never Stop," this album kicked my ass. It didn't kick my ass in the audio pummeling way that leaves my ears bleeding and turning the volume knob down, but more in the way of being totally blindsided while making a left turn and just never knowing what hit you.

I got this album in a large promo pack from Ecstatic Peace for my record store and having never heard of this band before I wrote them off a little bit due to the brown/orange commercial coloring scheme artwork and the band's name thinking that they would just be a little bit too rock'n'roll for my particular tastes that day. So it sat around in my promo bin for a couple days, but once it hit my CD player it just never came out.

The songs sound a little bit like Kyuss meets the Wipers and the vocal delivery at times even reminds me a lot of the Wipers' Greg Sage. A couple of the standout tracks include "Buick Electra,", "Head of Steam" and "Take My Life."

These guys didn't re-invent the wheel here, but they did make one of my favorite records of 2006 and if this is any indication as to what their next record will sound like, then I am eagerly awaiting their next attempt...

Black Helicopter's MySpace