PETER PAN SPEEDROCK, Desert Storm, General @Asylum 2, Birmingham 6/9/13

When last we saw General it was opening for Clutch at a packed Rock City. The Coventry band showed enough that night to convince us that they have something interesting going on. Tonight, it is a less than huge audience at the Asylum that greets them, but that somehow suits the band – they seem far more at home and somehow the riffs to songs like “Bullet Train” and “Better Dead” seem heavier tonight than back in July. Not trying to reinvent anything, instead General are a very passable Midlands version of Wiseblood era Corrosion of Conformity, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that whatsoever.

Desert Storm are another band that RTM has seen in the recent past. In this very venue, in July they performed opening duties for Karma To Burn and they impressed us hugely, with their take on what might be termed “The Clutch sound”. Certainly a couple of their songs owe a fairly huge debt to everyone’s favourite Maryland (Earth) rockers, but what sets them apart from most bands of this type is  Matt Ryan’s vocals. A touch more guttural than many stoner acts, it gives him the feel of Lemmy gargling razor blades. That delivery adds an edge to tracks like “Astral Planes” and “Queen Reefer” which has a huge riff and leaves no one in any doubt what it is about. If you thought that Oxford was all about Radiohead and dreaming spires then Desert Storm are here to change your mind.

If you weren’t aware of Dutch three piece Peter Pan Speedrock (and they are very much a cult act) then the opening acts – and the fact that they have been giving Monster Magnet an airing all night in the changeovers – might give you slightly the wrong Impression.

PPS deal with matters a little more punk rock than the other two bands tonight. Like Motorhead if they wrote two minute songs, or the glorious chaos of the first Hellacopters album, they are not a band to do “subtle”. Consequently their 45 minutes with us this evening is fast, loud, riff-filled and snotty.

During the course of the evening they play a song called “Donkeypunch” which finds them “horny and drunk” and another in “Resurrection” which tells us “we are gonna rock, you’re gonna roll”…. you get the picture.

They are one of those bands that seem eternally grateful that anyone has turned up at all, whilst at the same time seeming like they would have had just as much fun if we hadn’t. They end with “I’m A Big Boy With A Big Toy” which is dedicated to an audience member who is getting married and a track called “Rock City” which sounds just like all the others that have preceded it, and that, you suspect is the point.

This is fabulous, big, dumb fun to be enjoyed and not analysed. Not music concerned with how many roads a man has to walk down, but how much destruction he can cause on the way. An excellent way to spend a Friday night.

KARMA TO BURN, Desert Storm, Alunah @Asylum 2, Birmingham 18/7/13

Birmingham’s very own Alunah are very much the go-to band when a well-known stoner group comes to town. It’s easy to see why. Their down tuned Sabbath type grooves have been honed over the years, and songs such the title track of their most recent album “White Hoarhound” arguably deserve a bigger stage.  Since we last saw the band in January – when perhaps predictably they opened for The Sword in January – they have undergone a line up change. Tonight is their first show with their new bass player and not even some initial poor sound can spoil their half an hour.

Oxford’s Desert Storm are a new one us at RTM, but not for long, if the tunes they play are anything to go by. Straddling the same type of riffs as our favourites Orange Goblin, they are tremendously entertaining. During their set they become the first band we have ever seen who asks for the strobe lights to be turned off as they were epileptic and one of the only non-death metal band to attempt a track called “Enslaved In The Icy Tundra.” The band are back in September, supporting Peter Pan Speedrock at the same venue, and you really need to check them out.

Karma To Burn  the stage with “Just The Two Of Us” blasting. This appears their little joke on the fact that, well, there is just the two of them. Don’t bother looking for explanation on their website as to why bassman Rich Mullins isn’t here, as it hasn’t been updated for over a year.

As you can tell K2B are a group that is content to let the music do the talking. Handy then, that they are instrumental band. And not just any old instrumental band. If you never heard them, then imagine Monster Magnet with no lyrics, just huge riff after huge riff.

Another thing Karma To Burn don’t bother with are song titles in any conventional sense. Rather they just deal with numbers. So it is that they kick off in tonight’s blistering heat at the Asylum 2, with “Eight,” then move into “Nineteen” and then towards the end nominal front man William Mecum – the master behind all these monstrous creations says ‘here’s a newer one for ya, it’s called “53.”

Of course, by definition this type of music is always going to have a limited cult appeal. RTM has seen them once before, when they opened for the aforementioned Monster Magnet, we liked them a lot, but the person we with couldn’t stand them, which really couldn’t be beaten as a metaphor. Those that (to use a really smug phrase) “get it” find much to enjoy, as whether a two piece or a trio there is nothing quite like Karma To Burn. They are never going to win over the doubters – and you suspect that they couldn’t care less.