This round brings Baltimore’s own stoner rock sons Foghound and their latest release, The World Unseen (Ripple Music), to the table.

Stoner anthem ‘Above the Wake’ opens the record with its slow, fuzzy groove putting the listener into the right state of mind before vocals kick in, making for a hypnotic combination. Even through repeated listens, this still remains my favorite track on the album because I feel like it’s really the only one that embodies that stoner rock spirit.

I also really like the third track; ‘Serpentine’. It has a great bass line that grabs you from the very beginning and makes you want to move. This song is mostly instrumental, the band choosing to let guitar riffs speak for them instead and it works well. It’s these slower, fuzzier songs that make Foghound bring out their stoner side and I wish there were more of them.

Things speed up quite a bit more as the album continues on and I believe this causes it to lose a bit of the fuzzy vibe and rely more heavily on just the rock aspect. The band also falls into the trap that many others in the genre have before them and veer into lyrical cock rock territory with ‘On a Roll’ and “Rockin’ & Rollin’ with your typical commentary about them having to keep moving along and not having time for “haters” but they’re not actually saying anything of substance that isn’t already on every other stoner rock record in existence. These two cookie cutter songs are the weakest on an album filled with otherwise decent music.

The World Unseen is, overall, a respectable sophomore release. There’s definitely potential there for growth and the creation of some really great music on future albums once Foghound find their footing and decide to break the mold a bit.

7.0/10

ALEIDA LA LLAVE

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