ninehertz

How do you like your stoner/doom in a morning? Occult, bluesy, psychedelic, fuzzy, epic, groove-laden? No matter – Flor de Fumo, from Brazil, have you covered in this veritable buffet table of an album.

…May the Flower Be Smoked… runs the whole gamut of the sistering stoner rock and doom genres, but never to its detriment or dilution. It is consistent across its breadth and whilst not wholly original, it frequently brings tracks of joy.

Any time you begin to think they’re becoming predictable and wandering on all-too trodden ground they change tack an bring in a new hook or riff to head off on a new course and make you smile. Where the more conflicting elements brush up against each other – occult doom with punchy stoner, for example – they still manage to make it work.

It stays strong throughout, with a psychedelic number in amongst a couple of Southern states territory style stoner in its back end, the latter a sound which can sound dated but Flor de Fumo make it work, particularly on the superb Bluesbreaker with its groove-rich bluesy stoner via a slide guitar and head-swirling riff.

So then, how does an album, which is made of composite parts which are all too familiar and which jumps around stylistically, prove to be so joyous? How do I have no caution or “however, but” lines to trot out? It’s in the tunes – Flor de Fumo have written some stellar stoner and doom songs here which are simply too good to deny.