Enchantelope's Dungeons & Dragons homage a ripping good time

90/100

Right from the monstrous opening riff of "Eighteen Doors," the lead track of Enchantelope's debut long-player Natural 20, the listener is grabbed by the short hairs, your attention is commanded for this balls-out, no non-sense stoner rock homage to Dungeons & Dragons.  With an album title like Natural 20, and song titles such as "Cone of Cold," "The Necromancer," "Dimension Door," "Eye of Fear and Flame," and "Malleus Maleficarum," all D&D references,  I pretty much knew I was at least going to like the subject matter, having come up playing the role playing game Dungeons & Dragons since I was 12 years old.  While the subject matter may have piqued my curiosity about this album, it was the groovy, sludge-tinged rock 'n' roll blaring from my speakers that held me fast.

The guitar acrobatics of Steve Angers is all over this record, and the low end, handled by duel threat bassist and drummer Mike Palm, is rock solid.  Angers is also the vocalist.  He doesn't have a clean delivery, but I wouldn't call it a dirty vocal either.  Somewhere between a fierce growl and clean vocal and it fits the subject matter and the musical style to a tee.

I find myself curious about the Dungeons & Dragons module, or campaign even that led to the creation of this album.  I want to ask the band about their characters, their misadventures, how long their game lasted, etc.  I just know some good stories would arise from tale that birthed the crafting of this record.

"Cone of Cold" has a groove that reminds me of Pantera when they were at their funkiest, laying down the power grooves.  "The Necromancer" opens with a similar groove after a brief crack of thunder.  Now that I think about that, that's really a good description.  Enchantelope has a sound that crosses power groove with 70's guitar rock and throws in a hint of space rock to make it psychedelic and trippy in places.

The guitar solo that closes out "The Necromancer" is one of my favorite parts of the record.  It's blistering in intensity.   Favorite tracks include the aforementioned "The Necromancer," "Eighteen Doors," and "Cone of Cold."  The songs on this record are ready made to tell a story via a string a video releases.

One wonders what this duo will do when it comes time to take Natural 20 on the road, will Palm opt to play drums or bass, will Angers still play lead parts while singing?  I don't know how they handle that.  The band has been together 10 years so one presumes they've played live in the past and have these logistical issues answered already.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this record.  It's not what I'd term an "Instant Classic" that must be in every collection, but damn it's good and I'm certainly adding it to my vinyl collection.  I rate it a 90 out of 100.  

At press time the band had just sent out a notice that the vinyl releases had arrived two to three weeks earlier than anticipated and were beginning to be shipped out immediately. Since the vinyl was limited to 100 pieces, I recommend you get it while the getting is good.