If you read Metal Monday a few weeks back, you should already know that I am a huge fan of Karma To Burn. The West Virginian 3-piece is easily filling the void left by Kyuss and since their return from hiatus in 2009, they’re belting out albums quicker than you can say “Karma to who?”.
It was just over a year ago that their first album in almost 9 years Appalachian Incantation was released. They promised a quick turnaround on album number five and V is the promise being kept.
Remember that low end that Kyuss made on Blues For The Red Sun? It’s all on “50” while “49”‘s an all-out stomp and opener “47” starts a little southern-fried but then pummels you with the heavy.
V also stands out as having the most vocals of any Karma To Burn release since they ditched a vocalist after their debut. The surprising thing about that is how well the songs with vocals fit with those without (Same case for “Waiting On The Western World” sandwiched into the middle of Appalachian Incantation)
Besides a Black Sabbath cover, Year Long Disaster’s Daniel Davies utilizes his unique, almost Cornell-ian, voice on first single “The Cynics” and “Jimmy D” which was being performed on the band’s last tour with The Sword although that version has different lyrics. Both songs are pure K2B in feel but with a whole added dimension. If the boys ever decided to commit to a full album with vocals, I believe they’ve found their voice in Daniel Davies.
Eight tracks of pure rawk concluding with a cover of Sabbath’s “Never Say Die”, V is a riff-rollicking good time of an album that only gets better with repeated listens.