Released: 2010
A casual listen to Shellfin's debut could give you the impression that Second Hand Family is just one long track. Because essentially that's just what it is: a loose, semi-structured jam that even sounds like it was recorded in one take, with lyrics and vocals an afterthought to the enormously grooving riffs.
Like Kyuss, the band they originally formed to salute, Shellfin is a jam band that allows the music to dictate the path they take and how long it takes to get there. As the album progresses it becomes a series of jams-within-jams as the various members break into extended improvs that turn around on a timely fill from drummer Geeks back to the main riff or go in another direction altogether. The lyrics have a similar train-of-thought quality about them and the vocals have that deliciously slightly off-key aspect that only works for stoner bands. Like they say in their promo material, this is not about smoking weed but being immersed and entranced by heavy grooves, and the deeper you go, the more immersed and entranced you become. Some albums this long begin to feel like an ordeal just over halfway through, but Second Hand Family never loses its grip for the entire trip. Then fifteen minutes after the end of "Intervening Time" the hidden track "Of Bowels and Breath" rises from the silence on an immense, sinister riff so sludge-ridden it could have come from the bottom of the sea.
This infectiously likeable groove is available only through shellfin.bandcamp.com, for the very special price of whatever you feel like paying! And this deserves far more than small change. Shellfin don't really do anything that Kyuss hasn't done already, but these guys are our own, doing it with integrity, so they deserve support.
1. The Extent of It
2. Cruzzin
3. In the Head
4. Short Spew
5. Hedgehog
6. Fleishgeist
7. What's That Smell?
8. The Intervening Time
Rating: 90%
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