Dude! Lets go back in time with HOUND, this hard rocking, groove making, Funky, Psychedelic machine beaming the late 60s and early 70s at us through the lens of 2021.  "I Know My Enemies" is this German bands first long player, after a couple of Eps, not that you wouldn't believe they have been playing forever and not just since 2014, they are as tight as the knees on a shy girl on a first date as only a band who play so loose can be.

There is absolutely nothing modern about their sound, other than the production, which gives everything room to breathe and expand, allows the bass to run wildly everywhere, lets the drummer pick his own path and time signatures, ensures the guitars can freak the fuck out one moment and the next sound like the breath of angels.  And the vocals delivered with soul and passion, coupled with unrestrained, on the edge madness.

Lets talk about some songs.  Opener "Sleep In Thunder" struts on to the scene with a funky, sexy swagger, and a vocal highish pitched delivery interspersed with some amazing yelps, meandering in to swirling freak out with a soaring solo full of wah-wah before fading away into a similar cinematic spoken word outro to the intro. "Head Under Water" starts like the DEEP PURPLE at their funkiest, then throw in some quirky DOORS like keys whilst getting quite 60 Psyc on us, before morphing into another soaring solo.

"ALL OF US" has a 60 Garage Rock/Punk vibe. Starting with a riff straight out of MOTORHEAD and keys like Ray Manzarek having a manic episode.  "Fortune" features a Bass vs Guitar solo battle, which has to be heard to be believed.  I have to say I love the expressive, free and funk of the bass work on this album. There is far too much good stuff going on, on this exceptional collection to call out every song, this review would be so long I would bore you, plus you need to discover this for yourselves.

If you are a fan of bands with a retro feel like RIVAL SONS or THE BLUES PILLS even GRETA VAN FLEET, you need to get some of this between your ears, you need to go wow! "I Smell Blood" reminds me of the BIRDS.  Man how does the singer get their voice around that without sounding strained in "Primetime" and how can the guitars make my insides flutter like that and be legal!  What are those weird spoke passages that keep cropping up about, who is the angry woman?  How can this band sound so hot damned fine!

Seriously get down to your (record) dealer and score yourself a giant toke of this maaan, you will be so glad you did. Sometimes so overtly backwards looking bands can sound like a pastiche, not these dudes, they've got it going one.