If you’re going to be Stoner Metal band, a band specializing in cool-skinned, smooth-gliding Psych with a touch of Doom, ‘sidewinder’ would be an apt name. Fast-moving, cold-blooded venomous predator that lives and stalks in the desert. A pit viper with a tambourine built into its tail, only instead of it keeping a groove, the tambourine hearkens death. And maybe that’s what the five members of the Wellington, NZ Stoner Metal band, SIDEWINDER, were thinking when they formed in the year of our plague, 2020. Not the death bit, that would be grim, just the rattlesnake name thing. Befitting is what I’m saying. On August 23, the band dropped their second full-length album, “Talons,” and, yes, just like the band’s namesake, it is a killer.

SIDEWINDER is fronted by a gutsy, blues belter Jem Tupe. They boast a twin guitar assault (Ben Sargent; Thomas Rousell) and a mean rhythm section (Grant Lister, drums; Sean Fitzpatrick, bass). “Talons” comprises eight tracks and runs just under 35 minutes. No unifying theme that I could discern except for heaps of bad ass Stoner/Doom. The album kicks off with “Guardians” which greets us with a not-quite-powered-up bluesy thrum upon which Jem comes struting in with an easy, sultry croon. Pretty damned groovy so far, and then bottom drops out and, as they say, shit gets real. The rest of the track is a complete rocker, showcasing the best of everything about this band. The heavy riffs, the delta rhythms, the incredible vocal delivery, and some excellent lead solos. Perfect opener, this one.

Next up is “Wasted Space,” another track melding bluesy with groovy interspersed with Jem clawing the southside heaven with her soaring vocals. At the 90-minute mark, the band switches into a kind of jam mode with Ben and Thomas trading off exploratory solos for the remaining two minutes of the track. Nice touch. “Prisoner” is another heavy rocker akin to “Guardians.” You get the sense that this is default mode for the band, which is a hell of setting.

And then comes “Depths.” You guessed it, swampy Doom . . . and right at mid-album, which is a cool switch from the usual acoustic interlude that so many bands defer to. “Disarm the King” picks up a bit on the tempo but stays firmly rooted in the Doom space. With “Desert Song” we take off the boots of lead and get back to the smooth desert trucking. Just when you thought you heard all the tricks Jem had to offer, she reverts to flat out screaming. A great visceral track. Probably my favorite.

Penultimate track, “Northern Lights” eases on the tempo again, but it’s less Doom and more just contemplative Stoner. A track to soothe your soul before the band shreds it with the final track. “Yggdrasil,” the heaviest and longest track of the lot, blends the groove of Stoner with the down-tuned gravity of Doom. The track kicks off with a spoken word recording from Mr. Wednesday, aka Odin, from television series American Gods (based on Neil Gaiman’s novel of the same name). Yggdrasil is the sacred tree of life in Norse mythology, but I am guessing they couldn’t get a field recording of a tree talking. In Norse cosmology Odin hung himself from the tree for nine days and nights. Not in an attempt to commit suicide, but rather to expand his knowledge. That’s the way it is with gods, I suppose. At any rate, a great closing track for the album. Jem surprises again and goes gritty on this one, emphasizing the dark, earthy undertow.

All together, “Talons” is a phenomenal album. I should mention that it is also very well produced. Kudos to James Goldsmith (engineering and mixing) and Will Borza (mastering). The good news is the band only has two albums, so you can play catch up real quick if you’re new to them. I will caution that the original lineup of SIDEWINDER had a different vocalist and the band overall was less defined, which is to be expected on a debut. I want to say something quirky here about getting your ‘talons’ into this latest album, but that might be too much, so I’ll just leave it at a ‘strongly recommended’ and walk out with my dignity.