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Plotted somewhere between stoner rock and stoner metal is El Páramo, a Spanish band on a Spanish label that really has no discernible business sounding this adept at sun-soaking and dune-scaling. But lo and behold, it nails the relay between old Kyuss and new Queens of the Stone Age brilliantly, adding a bit of psychedelia ala Colour Haze and removing vocals completely. Without the attendant hemming and hawing over the relative quality of some sleepy-eyed frontman, the music takes center stage, where it must rise or fall on its own merits. Rise it does, these occasionally very long tunes impressing with fuzzed-out bass and guitar tone that underscores a sense of warmth and coziness to the proceedings. Coming off as inviting rather than sinister in its delivery, barring the jagged ferocity of penultimate track “Júpiter,” El Páramo would have made a logical Tee Pee or Man’s Ruin release circa 1999. Even ten years later, such unchallenging and laid-back dopesmokery can win me over by virtue of its love for the tropes of its own history. By the book rather than by-the-numbers, y’see, and any gaggle of would-be comers is welcome to relive the modest glories of the subgenre if it so chooses.
| Tracklist |
| 1. Varicela |
| 2. La Benedición de Eolo |
| 3. Sirope de Arena |
| 4. Infección de Escorpión |
| 5. El Aguijón |
| 6. Júpiter |
| 7. La Polvareda |
: 58:24
| Buy other El Páramo albums |
