MONSTER MAGNET - Last Patrol

Spoiler alert! I’ve been listening to Monster Magnet for exactly 20 years, and in June ‘99 I think I was the only one in the whole stadium who was happier about the opening band than Metallica (and when I say opening band I obviously don’t mean Antract).

I did my best to give Last Patrol (2013) the most impartial listen I could muster, considering what happened the last few years. With Mastermind (2010), Dave Wyndorf had clearly switched from post-Powertrip (1998) hard rock to a sound that was closer to the space rock of Dopes to Infinity (1995) and Superjudge (1993); probably the overdose he had survived convinced him that there was no point seeking success in the current musical environment. Then there were the shows in 2012, focused on Spine of God (1992), missing, even from the encore, what I would call the hits - well, maybe not be the best word, considering the band; what we got were long psychedelic jams, because “We felt like keeping the vibe, man!”, as guitarist Phil Caivano said when I asked him after their show in Vienna in November last year. So, all the signs pointed towards the fact that Monster Magnet were returning to the starting point, their primary sources of inspirations, to Hawkwind, Stooges, Sabbath and garage rock – the music that Dave Wyndorf (aged 56) had the chance to hear first-hand back then.

And the result is? Well, Last Patrol (2013) looks to me like the best Monster Magnet album since Dopes to Infinity (1995)! It’s not as heavy as one might expect, but it is more relaxed, more natural and richer in sensations, songs have a complex texture that grabs you and envelops you deeper and deeper each time you hear it! Even so, the song writing does not sound pretentious, because it gets the very spirit of garage rock, so Monster Magnet continue and not copy the bands from the seminal Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era (1972).

It is hard to name songs that stand out, because, while it is no progressive bore, Last Patrol (2013) is a single unit, a musical journey, where each song announces the next. Still, I would mention I Live Behind the Clouds - speaking of the alienation in the virtual space and surprisingly opening album, Last Patrol (a true psychedelic opera), Three Kingfishers (a fantastic cover version of Donovan’s song from ‘66), Hallelujah (redneck space rock?)… and there I go, mentioning them all in order! So I’ll stop, not before mentioning Mindless Ones - the first and probably only single from the album, a rather predictable piece – and the superb good-bye “ballad” One Dead Moon, the most conventional song in the history of Monster Magnet!

In a recent interview, published on theobelisk.net, being asked about where the music of Monster Magnet belongs, Dave Wyndorf remarked that “There’s no section in the store that says: Real Rock. Maybe that’s the thing we should make up: Real Rock.” Maybe Last Patrol should have been released in 1973, not in 2013. Is it perhaps too late for Monster Magnet’s career, or for rock music? I don’t know, but better late than never!

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