It's a really a heavy thing to carry on your shoulders the boulder name of MONSTER MAGNET; and when I say 'heavy', I mean figurativelyand literally. The enormous figure of the one and only Dave 'Space Lord' Wyndorf has marked for good the universal stoner rock scene and it's quite difficult for every band decides to follow his leadership to not imitate or copy a little bit his vocal abilities. All these are history, till RIOTGOD, four longhair hard rockers from New Jersey appeared in the music industry 3 years ago, having the two mighty members from the MONSTER MAGNET phenomenon, Jim Baglino on bass and Bob Pantella on drums, following the holy steps of the 'Magnet', with some interesting additions in their sound though.

The self-titled album of RIOTGOD via the German label of Metalville Records includes 16 tracks (yeap, I got the same scary as you, because of the tracks' number) from which the last two are bonus and gives us a generous dose of what RIOTGOD have got in their quiver. Heavy monolithic riffs, a lot of psych passages, some 70s retro influences and a couple of LED ZEPPELIN classic tunes are the main ingredients of RIOTGOD's mind-blowing sound that will draw anyone's attention involved with the stoner rock scene. In this spicy and tempting blend, RIOTGOD added some grunge elements (especially in the vocal parts) and songs like "Collapsing Stars", "Drone Station", "Rift" or "Sweet Kaos" refer to the glorious Seattle scene; personally speaking, I could think that they might be B-sides of ALICE IN CHAINS' "Facelift" or something.

Actually, "Riotgod" could be characterize as a 'double-tempo' album including at the same time tracks that touch the heavy stoner side of the MONSTER MAGNET and Co and tracks that flirt unprejudicedly with the Seattle area. Also, if you notice the album's duration that reaches the 70 minutes, you'll find this length appropriate for a 'best of' compilation, marking this album's double substance that I explained above. Nevertheless, you still enjoy yourselves with massive tracks like the opening "Light Of The Sun" (see the video clip below), "Horizon", "Pinata" (my personal favourite) and the hypnotic "Minds Eye" that belong to the 'Magnet' category. But here, I have to mention that RIOTGOD overcome the whole MONSTER MAGNET thing because of the remarkable music abilities of Mark Sunshine and Garrett Sweeny who put their personal mark in this album and lift-off the sonic result.

How could I describe "Riotgod" elements in one sentence? Well, let see;'if God were born in the 70s and met Layne Staley to smoke a joint, they would definitely jam together some MONSTER MAGNET tunes'. You get it, didn't you? The rest is history.