Tigers On Opium – Psychodrama
Release Date: 1st March 2024
Label: Heavy Psych Sounds
Bandcamp
Genre: Classic Rock, Psych Rock, Stoner, Doom.
FFO: Black Sabbath, Zeke, Hippie Death Cult.
Review By: Paul Franklin
There is a current trend in the car world for something called Restomods. The basic idea is that you take a classic car from the past and update it so, whilst it retains the look and style of the original, due to the benefit of the latest tech and decades more knowledge, all the bits underneath actually work properly.
One could describe Tigers On Opium as a Restomod band. Taking the basics of 70s classic psychedelic hard rock and packing it chock-full with the benefit of fifty years of musical advancements.
Psychodrama is the debut from these Portland ‘Guardians of the Riff’, the title being taken from a form of therapy that sees a person dramatize their problem or conflict in front of a group of other therapy participants, usually with them taking part in the drama. The aim is that by working together they can better understand past traumas and the influence they can create. Recognising that both he and a massive amount of people in the world find music therapeutic, frontman Juan Carlos Caceres envisioned the album almost as a snapshot of life “..with the songs playing the role of the individual and the listeners playing the role of the group.” Therefore, over ten tracks the band explore various themes including Propaganda, Atomic Warfare, Media Consumption, Social Unrest and Mental Struggle.
The album opens with Ride Or Die and ends with Ride Or Die (Reprise), two wistful, dream-like tracks bookending the therapy session, one drawing you in to the right state of mind, the other making sure you are OK before you leave. Black Mass kicks things into gear with some Sabbath-esque doom and chunky riffs, before the early highlight of Diabolique, a 70s style groove with a stoner rock foundation that is catchier than a herd of porcupine stampeding through a Velcro factory.
Never mind the four-minute warning, the thundering Radioactive is a seven and a half minute countdown to nuclear oblivion, with a cheeky nod to a certain Led Zep number just before the final delicate outro.
The doomy Separation Of The Mind sees the quartet go ‘Full Sabbath’, but with a delightful gear change in the final section that sees them raise the revs and hurtle towards the finish line.
It’s not all thunder and lightning, though, another highlight is the stripped-back and evocative Wall Of Silence. Despite its apparent sparsity, it has that feeling of epic grandiosity that reminds you of someone like Pink Floyd, where the notes are allowed to breathe and the ones that aren’t played are just as important as the ones that are.
An impressive debut from a band that recognise that in these troubled times, a little therapy can go a long way.
(4 / 5)
