Band:	Sleestak
Album:	Skylon Express
Style:	Psychedelic rock, Stoner metal
Release date:	2010

01. Skylon Express
02. Burnout
03. Library Of Skulls
04. Enik's Lament
05. Angela
06. Sleestak Wardance
07. The Marshall Plan
08. Birds Of A Feather

"I want to tell you where I've been/To the farthest reaches of the 69 galaxies/Places so far removed/It makes a man question his sanity."

Back when I was but BitterYOung I used to love Saturday mornings. I'd get out of bed early, scarf down sugary cereals, then scramble to the basement to follow the adventures of Marshall, Will, and Holly in the "Land Of The Lost." Sure, in retrospect the stop-motion animation, done on a shoestring budget then looks cheesy now? but the show introduced some heavy concepts that the show "Lost" liberally borrowed from. And nothing scared little me more than those creepy Sleestaks.

Fast forward a couple decades and hailing from the land of cheese and Cheeseheads, we find a stoner doom squad named after the very creatures that terrorized me so.

I think the first starting point of comparison would amusingly be the band that immediately precedes them alphabetically on my mp3 player, Sleep. Skylon Express has a stoner-jam feel to it, mixing the occasional death/doom growls and riffs with meandering solos over laid back drum and bass grooves and spoken vox that remind me of a very stoned Phil Anselmo. They sound like the bastard offspring of Esoteric's harsh, crushing psychedelia and the Grateful Dead's more chill-friendly blues-jam ride.

The songs on the album slide back and forth, some, like "Library Of Skulls" sonically capture that dread I used to feel when their namesakes hisssssed their way on to my television screen as a kid. Others, like "The Marshall Plan" and the title track are chilled out, fuzzed up, and wah-drenched. Perfect for following up after a night at the bar before you fade to black.

The music is certainly enjoyable in and of itself? but I will be honest, the band scores some bonus points from me for taking a treasured part of my childhood and using it as the concept behind some interesting music. (As opposed to, say, raping them like I imagine Will Ferrell did with his tired schtick? ) The music is every bit as heavy as some of the concepts integral to the plot of the show were.

If you have found yourself enjoying some of the music I've reviewed recently, be sure to check these guys out. Even if you don't get the silly polystyrene lizard man thing like us old folks, you're still likely to enjoy their music. Think a doomier, stonier, more metal version of Foghat's classic track.

"Slow Ride/Take it Sleesy"