Band:	Jumping Jack
Album:	Trucks & Bones
Style:	Stoner metal
Release date:	March 05, 2012
A review by:	Doc G.

01. She Made No Resist
02. Wet Desert
03. Crystal Tree
04. Into My Eyes
05. Churches Flames
06. Taxidermic Sensation
07. Fucking Holidays
08. Black Jack
09. Siren's Blast
10. Drunk Peanut
11. Neverth

An album like this really puts things in perspective. When listening to mid-late(r) era Metallica, like the black album, it's hard not to hear something targeted for nothing but cheap, mass radio play. Now we have Jumping Jack, who take a lot of aspects from that Metallica period but pair it up with a stoner rock type of sound, and it sounds pretty damn solid.

This isn't a Metallica tribute album or anything, the influences are just quite obvious. Along with that, it takes some more mainstream grunge a la Pearl Jam, and puts it through a Black Label Society type filter. The mix creates this comfortable zone of radio rock with mainstream appeal meets dirty heavy metal. The riffs are equal parts catchy and heavy, while the songs drive hard, yet have an incredibly accessible sound. This is really comparable to Queens Of The Stone Age, certainly not in sound, but in the appeal it has; easily digestible and radio friendly, yet with a good amount of integrity.

It is a really basic album, despite all the "this-meets-that" type of descriptions you're reading here. It's a riff-driven hard rock album. That's Trucks & Bones in a nutshell. With this type of music, despite being well written, and well performed, does get boring by the end of the album. There are no surprises, no twists, turns or "wow" moments, just solid hard rock. Jumping Jack aren't flavorless, as they do seem to have their own sound going on here, but it's just more than a bit predictable.

Nothing but good, rolling hard rock. If you're looking for more than that, look elsewhere.