The Kings of Frog Island is a British stoner rock band and this is their second album. This was another one of those serendipitous encounters where an album by a completely unknown band turns up as a promo and then turns out to be pretty good. The band play a mixture of early QotSA style stoner rock with bits that seem to come from Kyuss and Monster Magnet all wrapped up in some very sweet slide guitar playing and with the kind of lethargic, half-asleep grace that only a rare few stoner rock bands possess.

The first four songs on this album pretty much set the tone and mood and are what make this album. The first proper song on this album starts off with a vocal led buildup that is reminiscent of QofSA before going off into a bluesy stoner rock feel and the vocalist doing a great Dave Wyndorf impersonation. Up next is Welcome to the Void which is my favourite song on this album with its complete slowed down fuzz rock groove and vocal chants. It’s an infectious melody even if it is slow and brooding and the vocal line adds to the catchiness of this song. There’s also some very sweet guitar playing but that’s a given right through the album. The Watcher is another brooding, slow as a snail song that is drenched in the blues and has a great feel to it particularly when the vocal harmonies kick in. Joanne Marie is the most upbeat song on the album and has a cool rock n roll groove.

If the first four songs hold up the album, then the last three seem a bit pointless. Satanica and Witching Hour both go off in a proto doom direction but with strangely upbeat vocals and it doesn’t really work while album closer Amphibia Rising is pointless, rambling and about ten minutes too long.

All in all, there’s more stuff here that’s good than bad and The Kings of Frog Island have served up a pretty enjoyable album of stoner rock. It’s not brilliant but it’s mostly pretty good and the first half of the album has great repeat value.

Label - Elektrohasch

Year of Release - 2008