Never underestimate the power of good artwork. Seriously, Sequoia Seeds looks so appealing that by sheer design it's bound to stay in the proverbial racks of your local record store for at least 75 years. To this day, I could not tell you what is it that forced me to open it up and put it in my stereo. Maybe it was the fact that the name of the band actually reads like a name. Puzzling! Considering I hate it when bands go for regular human names, know what I mean? In any case, Pater reads like Peter and Nembrot reads like a Dutch name. Maybe the European version of Saskatchew or something like that.
But there is something to the fact that a name and a cover that tell you absolutely nothing about its contents. Who would have guessed that Sequoia Seeds was as heavy as it is? Classic riffs, classic bluesy heavy goodness, timeless open chords. Opener “The Weaver” is astonishing. Would this be not so soulful and bluesy, one could call it doom. The vocals of Philip Leonardi recall the reach might of Chris Cornell. Leonardi pulls no banshee screams though. And his band, certainly has never heard of grunge.
If you know their story, just imagine what could have happened to the sound of Soundgarden is just after Louder Than Love they would have become drunk with the grace of Deep Purple. Indeed, they would have sounded like Pater Nembrot; classic rock with huge riffs, awesome guitars, flirty synth-work, all giving way to the kind of stoner rock that as fad never came to be because they all lacked balls.
Sequoia Seeds is the second release from this Italian trio and it shows too much maturity to come from a group of novices. Judging by the pic in the insert they ain’t no spring chicken either, especially the lad on the left, the one next to the dude that looks like Rory Gallagher. We share a hairline.
It’s not all good for Pater Nembrot. The first three tracks are classics. Heavy but imbued with the kind of bluesy songwriting that could make them stand proud alongside any other staple of classic rock radio. The fourth is an instrumental titled “Three Gorges Damn’”. Things go softer from then on; “Sequoia” is vague, the kind of stuff that Jeff Buckley could pull off but that these bambinos can’t quite. And “Once Were Mud” has strong musical sequences – even recalling Jethro Tull - but as a whole, lacks the hooks and the central riffs to rival the first three. Pater Nembrot are promising and occasionally brilliant, but the uneven quality nature of the whole of Sequoia Seeds fucks them in the long run.
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Written by Ignacio Brown
