Songs for Future Gods

Album Review

Because of their '70s-inspired influences and independent work ethic, Mos Generator always seemed destined to record for sonically sympathetic Small Stone Records. But it surprisingly took several years and a couple of albums for this seeming no-brainer relationship to finally strike up. Now, it has borne tantalizing fruit in the shape of 2007's Songs for Future Gods, as the well-traveled, veteran power trio finally comes home to roost, as it were. Opening track "Silver Olympus" may burst off the starting block on a rapid-fire riff descended from Saxon's "Heavy Metal Thunder," but as listeners will quickly realize via more representative follow-up tracks like "Son of Atom Smasher" and "Wizards of the Prophecy Pen," Mos Generator like their songs relatively mid-paced and "clean" sounding rather than overloaded with distortion, stoner rock-style. As a result, additional standouts like the grooving "NandV," the driving "Y'juana," and the swinging "Acapulco Gold" achieve a more authentic, classic hard rock aesthetic, steeped in age-old giants like Grand Funk, Thin Lizzy, Kiss, April Wine, etc., and confine the "stoner rock" element to their weed-worshiping lyrics. Some songs get a little too laid-back for their own good, actually ("Into the Long Sleep" threatens to put listeners into just that), but others pick up the slack with a more aggressive attack (see "Yes My Lord"), balancing everything out in the end. And even though he generally snarls and croons like Monster Magnet's Dave Wyndorf, frontman Tony Reed also has a Paul Stanley-like quality to his voice that's sure to put a smile on any vintage rock fan's face. All in all, Mos Generator succeed in their mission to rock like it's 1975 (with a modern twist) all over again with Songs for Future Gods.