Graveyard Poetry (MeteorCity~2002)
Iīve never delved too deeply into the so-called stoner/doom genre. When I have sampled the genre, Iīve often been left a little let down and sometimes even bored. Abdullah, an Ohio-based outfit, far surpassed my expectations with "Graveyard Poetry", which includes one of my favorite songs of the year in "Black Helicopters". I could easily see these guys making it fairly big in the mainstream, which isnīt to say that theyīre another boy band in the making, but even the mainstream sometimes picks up on excellence of this magnitude. This album has a strong 70īs feel throughout, but thereīs a good variety that keeps each song from sounding the same. Nice riffs and a solid rhythm section hold it all together (yes, you can even hear the bass), but the strengths of this album are the songs themselves and the excellent vocals of Jeff Shirilla. Itīs encouraging to hear an album where the music composition, lyrics, vocals and musical performances fit together so well. "They, The Tyrants" closes the album with an unexpected change of pace as the song is more aggressive and features more extreme-sounding, distorted vocals. Other standout tracks are "A Dark But Shining Sun", "Guided By The Spirit" and "Behold A Pale Horse".