Bands disband and reunite as Metal history unfolds which sometimes is a good thing and sometimes is not, meaning that as long as there is a reason to resume what the band was doing and not capitalize on its legacy doing tours and being a ghost of its former glorious past. Out of the endless stories VISTA CHINO came as renaming of KYUSS LIVES! Which is a reincarnation of the founders of desert stone rock the legendary KYUSS with original members Brant Bjork on drums and John Garcia on vocals. Nick Oliveri who is on the bass was also in the first KYUSS album while Bruno Fevery on guitars joined them since KYUSS LIVES! started touring.

The first song of the band that came out, "Dargona Dragona", sounded promising and more or less heralded the return of the band to discography. Eventually "Peace" was released, an album of 10 tracks clocking about fifty minutes. After a small introduction of noises that welcomes the listener to the wasteland, "Dargona Dragona" takes over. The songs to follow are not that heavy and follow instead a "rockish" approach but offering in abundance riffs of pure stone attitude and with strong reference to BLACK SABBATH (and obviously to KYUSS). The record ends with a massive thirteen minute long track "Acidize ... The Gambling Moose". In the technical details I think it would be an excess to judge the band's performance. All of them are veterans and even the newcomer Bruno Fevery is doing an outstanding job. However, the production of the record (at least in the promo version that I have) is not doing justice to the songs. There is some dullness which mainly affects the drums and especially the snare which sounds terrible.

No matter what after repetitive and careful listening sessions my initial thought has not changed. And that is that the record is not what I expected. As long as this is considered to be a continuation of KYUSS I expect to listen to something that bears resemblance to that band. Indeed it is a Stoner record with tons of Stoner riffs but there is something that is totally absent. The feeling. The feeling that brings out "Gardenia" or "One Inch Man". The feeling that makes you wanting to destroy the goddamn speakers due to volume overload while your drive your car with open windows and the wind blows your face. "Peace" is a good record but there is nothing special about it. There are cool songs but when people that bear that legacy turn out with these albums I look back to the first paragraph and wonder why to release anything else. At least there is no KYUSS name involved.

To me VISTA CHINO's debut album "Peace" is a good album if it stands on its own but this is more or less what can be said about it. I as a listener was left confused and no matter the chances that I tried to give the material didn't build on me. I am pretty sure the fans of the band and obviously others will find things that will like and seem happy with that album but for me seems like a weak release especially compared to all the amazing stuff that is around these days.