Slowpoke – Slowpoke
Release Date: 22nd August 2021
Label: Self Released
Bandcamp
Genre: Sludge, Doom, Stoner, Punk, Rock n’ Roll.
FFO: Down, The Melvins, Clutch, Black Sabbath.
Review By: Paul Franklin
It takes balls to open your debut album with a nine and a half minute, mostly instrumental track. Stony Iommi shows that Canadian threesome Slowpoke have them in abundance. Starting with a punky riff and some growling vocals, after a couple of minutes there is a moment of clarity, the song breaks, and we understand the meaning behind the pun in the title as music takes on some Sabbath spacey vibes. The remainder of the track is purely instrumental, subtly increasing in weight as the music, that up till this point was drifting in the stars, is brought back down to earth with a doomy, subterranean crunch.
Like I said, ballsy move. It demonstrates that Ben Chapman-Smith (Bass, Vocals), Cameron Legge (Guitar) and Adam Young (Drums) aren’t going to be happy just ploughing one narrow musical furrow. They have an impressive array of styles in their arsenal which they can flip between at a moment’s notice. Ben, in particular, being able to seamlessly switch from a clean rock style to a guttural bark. This means that despite there only being seven tracks on the album, they manage to cover include everything from Southern-fried rockers (Windtalker) to sludgy doom (Sanctuary, Miami Camo) and the raucous three-minute blast of Slumlord, which seems to deal with the machinations of a particularly unscrupulous landlord. If further evidence of the band’s sense of humour is required, it can be found on the Down-like groove of single Sid The Cat. A song dedicated to ‘arguably the coolest cat in downtown St John’s. He sat in on a few of our jams…and even came to a few shows.’
Showing that they understand the tradition of ending with the ‘long one’ they bookend the album with another ‘nine-minuter’, the eponymous Slowpoke. Weightier than it’s opening companion, it still manages to drag some nice melodies to the surface as it lumbers to its conclusion.
All in all it’s an impressive debut, one that grabs your attention, plays with your expectations and hopefully it’s one that will put the band on many people’s radar. 
(3.5 / 5)
