Band:	Planet Of Zeus
Album:	Vigilante
Style:	Stoner metal
Release date:	April 22, 2014
A review by:	R'Vannith

01. The Great Dandolos
02. Second Coming
03. A Girl Named Greed
04. Burn This City Down
05. Tornado
06. No Tomorrow
07. Vigilante
08. Sky High Heels
09. Disappointment Blues
10. The Beast Within

Zeus. Father of the gods. Bringer of lightning, thunder and hard rock hitting metal mayhem? and apparently he's also the mythological ruler of the southern United States for some reason.

The reason being that this Athenian band by the name of Planet Of Zeus resides physically and geographically in Greece, yet stylistically somewhere much closer to Texas. The sound of their latest album Vigilante is metal with the heart and soul of southern rock, fully fledged in ten tracks which are the prime cuts of a Greek rise to prominence in a metalized southern styled sonic.

You can tell this band know exactly what they're doing when they've pinned down these tenacious tunes in the studio, or raised the roof, rather. Planet Of Zeus' song writing is archetypical when it comes to metallic and heavy rocking tracks averaging at about four minutes, and exacting rhythmic rollick after rhythmic rollick. Ten of them here, all packed with their own punch. Riff churners like "Tornado" tear through the southern "scenery" with the distinctive guitar distortions that connect things so well with their stylistic preference. In driving this preference, the rhyme and reason to their rhythms here is a simple one; cranial crunching. If this record doesn't have your head moving to the beat throughout its duration then you might need to check that your neck isn't shot to hell (or Hades as the case may be), possibly after having previously experienced similar stoner metal melody and jam driven goodies such as this one.

Vigilante has a style that's been done a thousand times before, though it's a pity that a majority of those times fail to rival the quality and memorability of riff as this record delivers in abundance. It's all in good, not entirely clean fun; the production smooths over the record without entirely polishing away the gritty nature of the guitars in their execution. Planet Of Zeus don't revolve around any trends, or what's hot and what's not. The southern regions of the US are hot enough for them, of which their tunes manage to authentically encapsulate in the typically metallic and edgy hard rock energised sound. That's their focus here, which they perform with a realised charisma centred on effective rhythmic structures and the vocal arrangements. At their most full-on, the style of Babis Tsertos is of the "all hail hard rock Americana or get outta the way" kind of character, and a distinguishing feature. He'll bowl you over with all the shouting and he'll win you over with a smoother southern style. Tsertos is completely in character with the driving rhythm section, which toes the line between stoner metal tones and hard rock song structures, making for a heavy, upbeat and consistently riff driven delivery.

If a heavier metal variant of southern rock sounds like your thing, look further than the expected location in the United States, and you'll find these commendable Greeks.