Earthride

Maryland supposedly is a new breeding ground for quality doom metal, although Earthride seems to be nearer the bottom of the barrel. Taming of the Demons is an excursion into the sludgy, sloppy realm of bad stoner rock, where a myopic adoration of Black Sabbath and the self-admitted (in the lyrics) obsession and addiction to valium mar the ability to be unique. But not everything is super-dark, once in a while the music shifts to that of an amateur '70s guitar rock-wailing circus, which is luckily stomped on by some interesting Lemmy-style vocals. The main fault for this album lacking longevity down the road is that it sounds like it was recorded in an Olympian-like marathon - as if it took as long to record it off the floor as it did to play. Perhaps there is not much to do in Maryland, and the griminess of this disc is reflective of that, or is it grimness?