JASON SAVIO

Strap yourselves in for a weird and surreal road trip down south with Providence,
Rhode Island’s Volcano Kings. At 13 tracks long, the Volcano Kings’
“Roadkiller” is an immersive instrumental record that transports you from
the safe confines of your familiar surroundings to a place you may not ever
dare to normally trespass.

The first stop is “Into This Road We’re Thrown.” Full of dread and impending
doom, this opening number lumbers like a demonic giant, helping to
set the tone for the journey that follows. Like many of the tracks to come,
it’s not clear-cut nor can it be easily categorized as simply one type of song.
There are elements of sludging rock, but Volcano Kings have a knack for
not constricting themselves to a specific category, and as such, this and the
other songs on “Roadkiller’’ feel organically created. With that said, out of
the numerous types of music Volcano Kings incorporate and gel into their
sound, the sludge rock element is their weakest. Thankfully it disappears
halfway through track two, “Texas,” and doesn’t appear again until the end
of the record.

For the most part, each song blends naturally into the other. The organ piano
introduced in “Texas” adds a creepy retro vibe, welcoming the traveler
into the unknown with an untrustworthy reach of the hand, and opens the
door for the rest of the songs here to stretch and grow. The band gets into
its bag of tricks with “Starry Night, Death Valley” when they put on their
spaghetti western boots and slumber into a dreamy arrangement with a nasty
bit of attitude that helps keep it from drifting too far off into the ether.
When the out-of-nowhere deployment of a spacey synth chimes in like an
unexpected UFO in this hazy western landscape they’ve created, you know
you’re going to be in for a treat the rest of the way.

Volcano Kings’ ability to seamlessly jump from one genre to the other and
make it all blend together without it being too jarring or blatant is on display
again with the reverb surf rock guitars in “Vaya Con Velocidad.” “Roadkiller”
as a whole is the kind of record you can close your eyes to and drum
up a movie in your head to fit the music. “A Summer in Hell,” with its operatic
western backing vocals (the only type of vocals on the record) brings
to mind a showdown in a barren southern town, like in an old cowboy film.
While the edgier, “Noche Estrellada” summons images of a quiet, shady bar
somewhere in a forgotten place on an orange evening, impending revenge
looming.

Can these songs be listened to by plucking them out of order? Sure, but that
doesn’t really seem like the way Volcano Kings intended for “Roadkiller’’
to be enjoyed. With six songs over five minutes long, the longest being the
nine minute title track, there is an element of devotion here that may be
too much for some listeners. But for those looking for something to expand
their mind when it comes to music, something that asks for their participation,
they will be rewarded with “Roadkiller”.

For more, visit: volcanokings.bandcamp.com/album/roadkiller