VELVET THUNDER

If fuzz-drenched riffs, high-energy grooves, and Swedish stoner rock swagger sound like your thing, then I’ve got an album that deserves a spin in your playlist. Caboose is here with their debut album Left For Dust (out on 21st March) and it’s got enough thick, riffy goodness to shake your speakers and rattle your bones! Caboose was born from the creative minds of four high school friends in Stockholm, Sweden, during the frigid winter of 2022. What started as a school project—aiming to craft high-tempo Stoner Rock—quickly evolved into something much bigger. From their first rehearsals in a makeshift garage studio, Caboose fused their raw youthful energy with a deep passion for heavy, fuzz-driven rock, creating something truly unique. As months passed, their sound matured, shifting from pure speed to a richer, more textured approach, blending influences from classic rock and the modern stoner scene.

Now, nearly two years into their journey, Caboose has become a staple of Stockholm’s vibrant music scene, performing everywhere from underground venues to festival stages. Each gig brings them a growing fanbase, a sharpened sound, and an unrelenting commitment to high-volume, heavy-hitting rock. With fuzz-drenched riffs, SG guitar twang, and a wall of sound that shakes the room, Caboose delivers more than just music—they create an experience. Their live shows are a full sensory assault, where you feel the bass in your chest and the guitars in your soul. Just imagine Queens of the Stone Age, Truckfighters, and Kadavar jamming in a Stockholm garage with the amps cranked to 11.

The band’s first offering is their recent single High On You, a fuzz-fueled anthem that’s equal parts heavy, catchy, and unapologetically fun. There’s a touch of Sabbath about the whopper of a riff at the start, and the vocals and general mix also remind me of a few other “heavy with a capital H” circa 1969 – funny how stuff goes around, comes around! A very promising start, this!

Shiner comes next, another brain-numbing riff, beefy drums, the vocals in particular again reminding hugely of lead singers from the early 70’s (yeah!). Seriously, these guys do a fair take on one of my all-time favourite bands, the criminally underated Stray.

For So Long sounds very like a (good) Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats number. Very like. And I suppose that’s a reflection on the fuzz/stoner genre – no matter how good a band is, they’re quite limited by the very nature of what they’re playing. This leads to to The Big Question – do you stick with what you know, love and are good at; or do you try to become more varied, creative, outside the fuzzbox?

Crimson Haze does sound SO like Stray from 1971 – and I do mean that as a compliment! It builds well, nicely unleashing the riff again at the end to the backing of a repeated chorus. Sophie’s Sushi Wok (great title!) follows, good stuff if a little repetitive. The last four – Fuzzed Out Mind, Cement Surfer, Feedback City and Spacerod continue to plough the same furrow and its decent stuff, although I suspect that being sat in your house listening to this doesn’t begin to convey the full excitement of what these guys can generate live!

These guys are very young and have a promising future. I’m also intrigued by the comparison with early Stray – if you do like this album and fuzz-rock more generally, give a spin to Stray’s Suicide album from 1971, they too were only 18/19 at the time…….go on, treat yourselves, see below!