Hochelaga, as a quick online check tells me, is an area near Montreal in Quebec, whilst without needing to trouble Google, I can say with some authority that Dopethrone is not only one of Electric Wizard’s most influential albums, but a trio of dirty Canadian sludgemiesters named for that record, and the threesome that gave rise to the album ‘Hochelaga’.
Anyone not familiar with the band might well construe from their name that Dopethrone’s sound owes more than a little to the veteran UK doomsters, and that would be right. Guitars are down tuned, bass lines fuzzy and massive, and drums are battered like the metronome counting the beats to a funeral march. Let’s face it though, just about every generation of musician borrows from, and is influenced by the prior one; Electric Wizard may have begat Dopethrone, but they in turn were surely birthed from Sabbath, themselves offspring of The Beatles’ late psychedelic period, whilst the Fab Four were surely sired by Buddy Holly and the Crickets, and so on. As such, ‘Hochelaga’ is an album devoid of the unexpected, but dripping with everything an aficionado of the form could ask for, and more.
‘Sludgekicker’ starts with effects of a wind howling through a graveyard mixed with a sound-bite of an uptight sixties anti-drug movie, the latter being kicked aside by vocals straight from a bad acid trip. ‘Chameleon Witch’ repeats the opening formula before a near seven minute wall of hypnotic riffing batters the consciousness of the listener. ‘Vagabong’ throws in a quote exhorting the listener to forget “this square world and blast off for kicksville”, before providing a sonic accompaniment on the journey to that destination unknown. I’ll be honest, there was nothing in the album that was new or revolutionary, and it would be easy to watch the released video for ‘Scum Fuck Blues’ and know what you were in for, namely dirty sludge laden music that creeps out of the speakers like a swirling THC fog. The repeatedly screamed refrain of “Smoke! Drink! Die!”, played over a montage of cult biker, horror, and counter-culture images distils the essence of the whole album into one concentrated four and a half minute blast, completed by a blues progression filtered through a haze of skunk and LSD. That’s not to say it’s in any way bad, the album’s sheer relentless aural assault giving ‘Hochelaga’ its own distinct identity.
‘Hochelaga’ is an album designed to be played loud, and listened to loaded, whilst the natural environment of the music is the sweat pit club where the bands juggernaut riffs can reverberate off of beer stained walls and bludgeon the audience into a chemical soaked submission.
(8/10 Spenny)
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