1000mods – Cheat Death
Release Date: 8th November 2024
Label: Ouga Booga and the Mighty Oug Recordings
Bandcamp
Genre: Stoner Metal, Heavy Metal, Heavy Rock, Punk.
FFO: QOTSA, Black Sabbath, MC5, (the mighty) Kyuss, Nebula, Black Rainbows.
Review By: Paul Franklin
To paraphrase Darwin, it is not necessarily the strongest or the most intelligent that survive, but those that are most adaptable to change. If Charles is to be believed, then 1000Mods are going to be around for a while.
Hailing from a small village in Eastern Greece, the band spent their early years, and first few albums, carving out an impressive foundation (and following) in the Stoner Rock scene. On their last album, 2020s Youth of Dissent, they decided to explore a little more of their commercial side, perhaps dialling back some of the genre’s traditional tropes and influences. Now, factor in four more years of evolution and we have Cheat Death. A ten track album that presents another version of the band, this one gleefully looking back to their beginnings, shoving those influences front and centre, whilst still chucking out the heavy stoner riffs like a gaggle of angry toddlers in a ball pit!
Whether it’s the doomy Sabbath tones of Overthrown or Misery, the punk rush of The One Who Keeps Me Down, or industrial tinged Götzen Hammer, all are anchored very securely back to that Stoner Rock foundation.
Speedmaster is Motörhead dragged out of the sweaty dive bar and given some space to breathe, whilst the big hug provided by the 90s tinged Love has to be in contention for the best six and half minutes of music produced this year.
There have been a few negative online reactions to the singles released so far, with some long term fans voicing their disapproval for the band ‘abandoning their sound’. Although their position is easy to understand (no one likes change just for the sake of it), I refer you back to the beardy Victorian at the beginning of this review.
(4 / 5)
