VELVET THUNDER

After more than a decade of relentless touring and a reputation for electrifying live shows, French desert rock power trio High On Wheels are back with their highly anticipated new album, The Monkey, set to be released on October 17 via Klonosphere Records. Known for their pure, gritty, and direct approach to rock, High On Wheels craft music that thrives on stage, where their three voices, three instruments, and unfiltered energy come alive without the need for synthesizers or any artificial gimmicks. The band embodies the spirit of a three-headed beast, delivering unrelenting riffs and desert-drenched grooves that strike a chord with fans of Kyuss, Red Fang, Fu Manchu, and Truckfighters. They first made waves with their 2015 demo, before unleashing their debut full-length FuZZmovies in 2021, which garnered widespread critical attention. In 2023, they further showcased their versatility with the stripped-down Acoustic Tones For The Crazy Psychonauts EP, proving their music thrives whether plugged in or unplugged.

Their upcoming release, The Monkey, was recorded and mixed by Jordan Jupin at Studio de la Fuie, mastered by Florent Sicard at Bad Bean Mastering, and features artwork by Mr Grrra. Promising a heavier, dust-ridden soundscape, the record captures the essence of their live shows, thunderous, high-octane, and undeniably real. With a reputation forged on stages across Europe and an unwavering dedication to authentic, live-driven rock, High On Wheels are set to unleash their fiercest and most uncompromising work yet – The Monkey will be available on October 17 via Klonosphere on digital platforms and as a special double vinyl edition.

The album contains seven slavering, salacious slabs of dirty desert rock, basically recorded in live takes, kicking off big-style with their no-nonsense single, Get Down. This encapsulates the band’s live, no-frills sound, it’s a real belter of a pacey, fuzzed-out riff, with a nice touch of psychedelia swirling around to boot. As you might expect of a power trio, Beaumont Grégoire on drums and Tantot Gilles on bass are pretty much joined at the hip to provide such a solid platform. The lyrics portray the overcoming of a tough personal experience, the track underlines the cathartic power of rock.

Then we have the weirdly, wonderfully named The Monkey Who Dipped His Balls In My Whisky – I mean, how to put words to a track such as this! A slower, darker, sludgy number that is hypnotic from the outset. Vocals are slurred and growly, with shades of Metallica’s James Hetfield, but I suspect they’re secondary to the overall vibe on this one!

After these two relatively short numbers we have the six-minute Lost In Space, again with a sense of James Hetfield in the vocals, this one pounds along like a demonic canine, quintessential desert rock with its “jam-friendly” sound and trance-like vibe. One rather suspects that these guys could belt this stuff out for hours! Sinking Too Much, continues the sludge-worm approach with some swirling lead notes whipping above the morass, before Black Sands drops the pace and mood in to a slow, grungy, hev-vey riff that is so bluesy at heart. Hugely hypnotic, wonderful drumming, winding up into a stonking climax. Good stuff, whereas Wolf_Dog feels like a return to the faster, more formulaic sludge that these guys live and breathe. It’s ok but becomes a little predictable.

Arrakis brings this collection to a conclusion, a nine-minute epic that feels like a contemporary, fuzzed, take on “Journey To The Centre Of The Earth”! It winds meatily down then back up in sections, always driving deep into your desert soul. A satisfying beast to end this album, there’s some seriously talented musical interplay here, some searing lead licks and suitably booming basslines loping up and down with good changes of mood. As with a lot of desert bands, the trick is to generate enough variation across a song-set within that tightly pulsing sound. High On Wheels mostly manage to achieve that, especially with this scorcher of a closing number.