The moment I saw the sci-fi style cover artwork and the stylish, retro-ish logo of Regulus, I wanted to like this album and the band. Regulus is one of the stars of constellation of Leo. Mysterious "Yellow Emperor" of China, Huang-ti (27th century B.C.), is said to be an alien from Regulus-area planet. Now how's that about sci-fi, then??!?! Well, it's surely an interesting myth of a being, similar to multiple ancient stories talking about "people" travelling fast and shooting lightning...

Space stoner rockers/metallers Regulus hail from Sheffield, though. They certainly are human beings. With their sophomore full-length album 'Quadralith', they simply cannot liftoff from Earth. 'Quadralith' is simply Earthy retro stuff. One can hear Orange Goblin, Alabama Thunderpussy and The Sword, to name a few echoing in Regulus' music. Sometimes this is on heavy metal side of things, but mostly it is very bluesy in its sonority; at times outright driving, at others more chilling. Here and there a bit abrasive, but also occasionally airy. One notable trait of Regulus is the vocalist, who sounds like a mixture of Glenn Danzig and John Garcia of Slo Burn, Kyuss etc. In general, I wanted to hear more spacey elements here, but was left nearly empty-handed. But the band certainly managed to conjure some tasty riffage and memorable pieces here, although not enough for 'Quadralith' to keep its appeal for considerable duration of 51 minutes.

The production is a tad powerless and empty. It also sounds to be a very typical affair in this game. The vocals steal the show from other instruments; they are they only real unique trait for the band. The drunken backing vocals do not fit in this category, though. However, there are some cool riffing and soloing, as well busy bass playing. The drums are the crippling element for the band; while not being inventive at all, there are moments where the beat lags and gets off-tempo, especially during more atypical and indirect beats. This gets very clear on the otherwise nice opener, 'Dominion', and particularly on instrumental song 'Dutch'.

This has effort in it, but doesn't manage to climb out of a mass of stoner stuff. Bring in more spacey stuff or something, because this needs more magic.

Rating: 5½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
08/11/2017 18:13