Stoner is a genre that often invokes images of long Californian desert highways, but in reality it is now a worldwide genre with many bands taking this style under their wings. One such band are France’s Zoë who have released their fourth studio album ‘Back into the Light’.
What Zoë offer with ‘Back into the Light’ is an album which rocks hard with stoner grooves and driving rhythms. Thankfully, these stoner grooves are not reliant upon sludge or groove metal and instead stick to an old school heavy metal and hard rock vibe. This means that ‘Back…’ is extremely accessible and opens itself up to a wide demographic; not only does the listener get the pounding stoner beats of the likes of The Electric Cactus and Howling Giant, but there is an underlying groove of Metallica and of course, Black Sabbath as a free-flowing rhythm section holds down a punk style guitar that wouldn’t be out of place with MC5 or The Stooges. The plaudits do however go to ‘In Praise of Laziness’ a track which begins with all the hammering of Motörhead in their prime.
Yet, Zoë have hardly pushed themselves with this release, it is a safe record that will sit lovingly with their fans. But what ‘Back…’ does do if provide a different approach to stoner, one that has more than enough appeal to an older generation of rockers and sadly, this band would be on everyone’s radar if Zoë had the luck of being situated in California. Alas, do yourself a favour, listen to this album, grab a beer and spark a fatty, it is more than enjoyable.
