EGYPT (ND) — Egypt (review)

EP · 2007 · Stoner Metal

3/5 · 2022-06-12
siLLy puPPy

EGYPT was a stoner metal / retro heavy psych band that formed in Fargo, North Dakota in 2003 but broke up three years later in 2006. In this time only four songs were recorded for a demo that turned into this confusing self-titled debut that was also released as a self-titled EP in 2009. The band found a cult following with these set of songs and given that the band members hadn’t found anything better to latch on to they decided to reform in 2013 and released three more albums for disbanding once again in 2017.

This first lineup featured Aaron Esterby (vocals, bass), Chad Heille (percussion) and Ryan Grahn (guitar). Weirdly the band’s name is Egypt but the album cover art of this first offering features what resembles a Druid of some sort. Hmmm. When i say this is stoner metal i really mean it. While some bands classified as stoner metal like Queens of the Stone Age and Kyuss are energetic and craft compositions that feature pop-infused hooks and nice chord changes, EGYPT is the real deal as far as nonchalant riffage and fuzz-fueled guitar chords are concerned.

Despite hailing from North Dakota, EGYPT sounds like it’s adopted a lot of southern rock on this one with Aaron Esterby’s vocals sounding like something from classic Lynyrd Skynyrd. The guitar riffs are nothing out of the ordinary. Simple bluesy riffs bathed in reverberating fuzz and a touch of traditional Black Sabbath without any thought given to extended compositional fortitude. Nope, this is just a series of cyclical loops that play around with loudness and dynamics. The strongest feature of this band is the cool bass grooves which sounds unlike anything i’ve heard before. It’s the trippiest and stoniest part of the entire EGYPT experience.

While mostly on slo-mo, the band does rock out in a Southern metal kinda way. My favorite track is the opening “Valley of the Kings” which delivers the band’s best attacks fast and furiously or should i say slowly and insidiously. While things start out great the band doesn’t really deviate from the formula nd the following tracks just sorta push repeat with the expected change the chords around and a few other dynamic changes just to claim their new tracks. This i the reason most stoner metal fails to impress me because it totally eschews qualities like creativity and the art of surprise.

The tones and timbres the band achieves is my favorite aspect of this EGYPT release but overall i’m not too overly thrilled with this one. It’s a pretty good listening experience but not one of those OMG transcendental stoner trips that makes you want to smoke the peace pipe until your final days on this planet. No, this is just a nice pleasant hazy journey through the stoned out minds of the good ole boys just having some fun and doing a really good job in the production arena. This is a nice way to kill thirty minutes of your life but ultimately it’s forgettable and isn’t something that beckons a return.