Sierra – “Pslip” [Album Review]

Signed to Retro Futurist Records, the label started by three members of stoner outfit Kylesa, Canadian psych/metal trio Sierra have the honour of being the first release on the label and, after listening to the psychedelic, lazy riffs pouring out of this album, we’re very much hoping this is an indication of what is to come from both the band and their label.

With a very seventies, hippy-era feel to it, Pslip is an album full of groove, full of riffs and full of hazy, smoky vocals. Down play riffs like this while the seventies were full of bands who sounded like Sierra and they were all producing albums that sounded like Pslip. Songs like “Control Folly” are raw, the riffs are as fat as the joint that was being rolled while they were being written, while the haunting “100” is truly mesmerizing, hypnotic stuff. In fact, this haunting, hypnotic atmosphere mixed with huge, nicotine riffs is a pattern that runs throughout the course of this riff-filled album and nowhere is this brilliant collision of fat riffs and trippy moods more evident than on the appropriately named “Smoke Filled Room”.

Overall, as you listen to Pslip it comes across as a loose, lazy sounding album but don’t take that in a critical way. As the riffs pour over you, it becomes obvious that not a lot of effort has been needed by the three members of Sierra to create this impressive trippy display of drawling, groaning music so why not do what they probably did when writing it – dim the lights, shut the door, light up a fat one and lie back and enjoy the ride.

Track Listing:

01. Pslip In
02. Little Smoke
03. Control Folly
04. 100
05. Psquigalogz
06. Into Nothing
07. Smoke Filled Room
08. Pseptember
09. Pslip Out

Run Time: 46:41
Release Date: July 19, 2013

Check out the album ‘Pslip’