Album Review - Monster Magnet - Last Patrol

Album Review: Monster Magnet - Last Patrol

It is hard to argue that Dave Wyndof is a visionary; his trippy, spacey, far-out song writing was basically the catalyst for the stoner metal genre. Combining the best elements of the acid rock movement with a hook laden 70s booggie rock influence, Monster Magnet made basement joint smoking music ready for an arena show on Venus. On Last Patrol the band sounds as alien as ever, maybe even prehistoric to those who grew up listening to the band as not much has changed but not altering your vision does not change being a visionary, right?

The record begins with the plodding ‘I Live Behind the Clouds’, a journey into the mind of Wyndorf who is no normal dude. He wails “I stay behind the clouds”, tortured, like a man who saw something he should not have and is living with the consequences. The title track sounds like a missing piece from 2004s stellar Monolithic Baby, banging it’s way to a huge chorus of crushing rhythmic assault. The sonic version 0f taking an adrenaline bong hit.

It’s not all a walk through the smoke shop though, there are some straight misses like the messy Hallelujah where Wyndorf sounds like the worst southern preacher ever born again and the equally bizarre Paradise; a song better fit for a Blind Melon record, mysteriously caught in the mid 1990s.

Mindless Ones brings the band back to Powertrip form, reminding us why we like Monster Magnet…they fucking wail. This is bully music, the stuff the kids smoking behind the bleachers listened to. It is music meant to be blasted from a car stereo on an autumn night on the way to the bonfire.

At their best Monster Magnet is American rock at it’s beefiest but, at rare other times, the band falls flat, like a dated 90s hard rock act. Case in point the acoustic Stay Tuned, perfectly fit for an episode of 120 Minutes, seems out of place here. Last Patrol should have ended with the blazing End of Time which highlights what Monster Magnet does best: space out.

7/10