COBRA

Rock / Psychedelic / Southern Rock

Wheeling, WV

Billboard

After five years of breaking nearly every established mold of heavy metal with their genre-defining "sci-fi metal" project The Minus Tide, the band's four remaining members are set to reveal once again the ever-expanding scope of their musical vision and capabilities.

Despite an intensely committed fanbase and consistently positive reviews of their 2004 masterpiece, Anakuklosis, The Minus Tide lost long-time guitarist Chris Klug, and struggled to retain a permanent bassist. After carrying on as a four-piece for several months, Dallas Campbell, Rosanne Campbell, Mikey Iafrate and Dave Klug opted to take the band into period of extended hiatus, choosing instead to begin a new four-piece rock band in its place, and leaving time for much-neglected side projects including Campbell's Drown Culture and Iafrate's M Iafrate & The Priesthood.

The new four-piece, named simply COBRA, takes the Tide's "wall-of-sound" combination of guitar, bass, organ, and drums and strips it down to a pure '70's-inspired riff rock format. The playing and songwriting are clearly inspired by the great riff slingers of the past such as Black Sabbath, Blue Cheer, Motorhead, and Pentagram, with an addition their own brand of hooks, humor, and even culturally-critical lyrics to the mix. In this way, COBRA takes its own unique place among other notable reinventors of the sounds of classic/stoner/riff rock, such as Clutch, Black Mountain, Dead Meadow, Wolfmother, and The Party of Helicopters.

What is perhaps most refreshing about this foursome is that while they have continually experimented and reinvented their approach to music, they have consistently remained themselves while avoiding devolution into gimmickiness, self-conscious irony, or the "let's-dress-up-and-pretend" variety of rock idol worship so common in popular rock music today.

With their debut full-length, Feels Like Freedom, COBRA is set to take us back to basics, make our healthy minds explode, and remind us all why we got into this rock 'n' roll thing in the first place.