Black Lizard - (2012) Crawl to the Rock

Seen from outside Darmstadt might appear somewhat green. That could all be about to change. BLACK LIZARD don’t just trample on the plan, but the trees as well! Their music: FOREST ROCK – is played with such intensity that you can’t hear the woods for the riffs! Settled somewhere between heavier blues and mid-tempo grooverock, BLACK LIZARD like to embellish their music with melodic excursions in the direction of Desert Rock and Doom. Anyone who wants to know what it’s like to rock in the woods, BLACK LIZARD can show you, and add whole bunch of groove, mixing it up into their own ROCKtail. Indulge in your memories of best eras of rock music as BLACK LIZARD’s sound, forceful yet equally bluesy, stacks up and up into a powerful wall of sound. The songs are provided with a vocal that could be borrowed from the greats, and may leave you thinking of VEDDER, despite the acoustic comparison, and hold court mostly in the mid tempo toe-tapping arena. Occasionally, though, BLACK LIZARD push it further still, giving it out hard and full blooded, whilst maintaining a passionate feel. Not just for followers of bands like PEARL JAM or FU MANCHU, and the soulful head-nodding they produce, but also fans of MASTODON, the RAGING HONKIES or DOWN. ~Press Release

Black Lizard belt out four solid, meat and potatoes riff-rock tracks on their debut ep. "Crawl to the Rock" has all the stuff that makes the genre so cool. Muscular fuzzed-out guitars, strong vocals, lots of wah pedal, and knowing when to chill things out during a song at the right time. Just good quality song writing, performed by dudes who know how to carry a guitar. Obviously influenced by Kyuss and the bluesy, desert-doom sound makes this an impressive debut, and clearly makes Black Lizard a band to keep an ear on. 

~Adam