From Wausau, Wisconsin, comes a heavy hitting duo in the best WHITE STRIPES style. A heavy fuzzed guitar,drums and vocals combination are the ingredients on this recipe. 20 WATT TOMBSTONE was created by guitar player and vocalist Tom Jordan with Mitch Ostrowski on drums and nobody else in the band. They are introducing their 4th album The Chosen Few with a down tuned stoner crunchy style reminding me of KYUSS with a touch of ZZ TOP. The guitar is tuned so low that a bassist seems to be irrelevant.

Prophet Man starts the album with high energy. A bluesy tune with great vocal lines dueling with the heavy guitar. The first thing that came to my mind listening to this song was, where is my Harley Davidson? And the second one was, I don’t have one, but it would be cool to have this song as a soundtrack for a motorcycle gang. With a cool leading drum beat and a piercing guitar riff, Chosen Few is introduced. Heavy blues to the max in my opinion which is great. Good attitude and a great variation of riffs and passages. Tom Jordan has a good range for the style, keeping his vocals in a medium to high register to let you know how greedy religion is. This song has a good video on Youtube. With a touch of country in the introduction, The Bomb That Saved The Day shows that the band knows how to mix some genres in their proposed heavy output. You can find even Doom Metal parts in the tune. This may sound contradictory, but I like the simplicity of it all as well. Raw and direct with good melodies and chorus and 2 guys behind it all.

 We pass the halfway point with the neck breaking riff of Black Top Sorrow. For me the winner so far. The band takes its time to set the riff in your head and with a good bluesy vocal melody on top, this song made my metal spine tingle a little. The end with a change of tempo and riff, it gave me total BLACK SABBATH vibes. With the crunchiest riff of the album mixed with some string muting, scratches and slide, Midnight Train is surely another good tune. Nothing revolutionary, but with good bluesy riffs as it seems to be their element. The songs in the album have the same attitude and intensity, however they have enough variations not to bore the listener. The next song is reserved for a good cover. Just Got Paid from ZZ TOP with a much heavier delivery of that famous riff. This song is a perfect match for the band and their bluesy style. With great drumming from Mitch Otrowski the band is faithful to the material and surely honors it. Imagine a ZZ TOP, but more badass.

 The album ends with Magnolia that has a great introductory riff and once again plays with the vocal melodies and pauses. Fuzz pedal to the max on this one and you can’t go wrong with that. A nice calmer tempo break in the middle lets the band display a different mood that brings it all together in the end. All songs in this album are short and direct. No guitar histrionics or excesses and the album is also not over produced giving the sensation that you are in the room with the band. All very basic but delivered with energy and passion and this is felt through the speakers. The duo has a lot to explore within the style and has great potential. If they keep following the current path, I am sure we will hear from them in the future.