Band:	Weedpecker
Album:	II
Style:	Grunge, Psychedelic stoner metal
Release date:	April 2015

01. Reality Fades
02. Flowering Dimensions
03. Fat Karma
04. Nothingness
05. Into The Woods
06. The Vibe
07. Already Gone

A lot of what falls under the stoner metal genre can be described as fast-paced, energetic and driven by pummelling riffs (see bands such as The Sword and Kyuss) or monolithic and crushing (Sleep or Electric Wizard). However, I somewhat feel like neither of these truly reflect the positive but slowed down and subdued stoned mindset. In came Poland's Weedpecker with their self-titled debut in 2013, which whilst delivering a fair share of punchy stoner riffs, generally operated at a relaxing pace and had a spacious, easy-going and explorative vibe. It was a truly fine record and promised of plenty more great music to come from the band, the next eighth of which has arrived with the creatively-titled II.

What we get here is no grand departure from what Weedpecker has led listeners to expect from the band. Whilst fuzzy stoner metal grooves enter every now and then, there's a lot of jam-style smooth playing with a clear psychedelic touch. Probably the most notable difference between the two records is the songwriting approach. Whilst Weedpecker opened up with the smooth groovy riff of "Berenjena Pipe" and was happy to let its heavier songs get going with delivering punchy riffs from the outset (see: "Kraken"), on II most songs (not including "Fat Karma" and "Nothingness") start out with a soft intro that gradually moves towards a heavier 'core' song (level of heaviness may vary). In each individual case this is fine, as each introduction is lush and fully enjoyable; however as a consistent approach across a whole album it does begin to raise eyebrows slightly. However, apart from that one issue, the music on display here is just a hazy delight.

The previously mentioned "Fat Karma" begins with a big, crunchy riff and just marches on from there with several fine riffs accompanied by the band's typical distant and foggy vocals, ultimately culminating in a truly exquisite guitar solo. It's then followed by the everquiet "Nothingness", which rolls along with its slick playing and greater vocal prominence without ever feeling the need to turn up the volume. As far as the soft-to-hard songs are concerned, all are thoroughly enjoyable, but the extended album centrepiece "Into The Woods" is arguably the pick of the bunch, with a minimalist intro that slowly layers up and hints at breaking into full riffing before subtly slipping into a tasty groove that eventually goes full metal, never looking back as it triumphantly jams on.

So to sum up, one might question the slightly uniform writing style applied to II, but looking beyond that there is a fine array of stoner jams full of plenty of both soft and hard groovy riffs, mystical echoed vocals and heaps of varied guitar noodling resulting in a psychedelic stoner metal album that one could actually relate to when tripping or baked. Or alternatively, listen to Weedpecker sober and enjoy it anyway, as they've again produced a truly fine piece of work in its own right.