Melbourne psych/doom/stoner outfit Motherslug have taken all of the elements of those genres, pillaged them, thrown them in the blender and then added lashings of their own spice to deliver what can only be described as stoner rock, Aussie style.
For over a decade the four piece have plied their trade tirelessly, racking up the shows and supports and carving their own corner of a growing national market that is only getting bigger.
The group are poised to drop their third album Blood Moon Blues on August 20, with a special celebration launch as part of this weekends Sunburn Festival in Melbourne at the Gasometer Hotel.
HEAVY caught up with vocalist Cam Crichton and drummer Nick Rad to chat about the album and show, starting with the title which is deceptively hard to say.
“Yeah, it's a little bit of a tongue twister actually,” Crichton laughed. “It can be difficult to say. We struggled with an album title for quite a while"
"As we always do," Nick interjected.
"And we had some horrible suggestions early up,” Crichton picked up, still laughing. “We were following along in the lines of Electric Dunes Of Titan from the previous one and I think the first suggestion we had was The Nubian Pyramids Of Kush - which is actually a real place - but it sounded a little bit airy fairy. We had another one in there for a while but we just came up with it one day, Blood Moon Blues, and the blood moon is a bit old now, but it was happening around the time we were writing these songs so it was kind of appropriate even though it's long gone now. The blood moon has affected my life in a couple of ways. Not to read into astrology or any of that kind of stuff, just coincidental, but every time it came around something bad happened so Blood Moon Blues seemed appropriate."
In the full interview, the boys talk more about the album, it’s musical direction, the different tones on the album, the stoner scene in Australia, this weekend’s launch party and more.
Intro track PISTONFIST 'Rise Up'