Album Review: Weedeater - Jason... The Dragon

I've always wanted to get into stoner metal. It's just been one of those genres that has always appealed to me but I never could fully appreciate. I decided to take the plunge into the genre by listening to Weedeater's new album Jason... The Dragon in it's entirety in one sitting, and I must say I was impressed.

The first thing I found that I loved on this album was the bass. It's just so chunky and heavy, always playing bluesy riffs over the guitars. Personally, my favorite parts of this album come when the bass is playing by itself, such as in the beginning to "Hammerhandle" and the title track. Once the other instruments kick in it can be hard to spot the bass, but when I can I always appreciate it. The other instrument's don't do a bad job either. The drums merely keep the beat and never go over the top, and the guitars lead the stampede of songs in a rather grungy manner, making the songs feel amazingly sloppy.

I do have a bit of trouble with the vocals however. For the most part they seem a bit forced and not entirely genuine, which is an issue for me. Everything else does a stand up job for the most part, however.

When it comes to song structure, this is definitely an album one can sit back, roll a joint, and space out to. This is prime stoner material right here. Some songs don't feel like they a set structure of verse-chorus-verse, or anything of that like, and everything just kind of blends together. It's nice to kind of absorb most of the songs, but the downside is a lot of them sound almost exactly the same as other one's at first. It takes a few listens to appreciate each song as a whole.

All in all, this is a good album that anyone trying to get into stoner metal, like myself, can get a kick out of. The songs can be confused easily, however, and the vocals take a bit of getting used to, but if you can get past that then you have yourself a great intro stoner metal album.

7/10