Trippy Wicked and the Cosmic Children of the Knight are a groovy three piece stoner rock band from the St. Albans area. It’s actually been four years since their previous release Movin On, which is possibly down to the fact these chaps have their fingers in other juicy stoner rock pies such Stubb and Groan. However, there’s a lot of love for this band in the London area, I would love to tell you how great their set was in this year’s Desertfest but sadly it was too rammed to get in which tells a story. Anyway, they are back with a rather bruising EP entitled Underground which delivers five slabs of good honest stoner rock.
It launches with a classy riff which is part of the title track ‘Underground’ and just as your head starts swinging, Pete’s clean yet dynamic vocals come in. He has a wonderful and rather unique voice which helps make Trippy Wicked from stand out from the crowd. It kind of reminds me of Goatsnake Vol.1, heavy riffs with a clean catchy vocal line and just like the entire EP this number delivers heavy yet catchy groves being executed perfectly with subtle surprises in abundance.
As the EP roars along I almost feel like I’m sixteen and discovering stoner rock again… constantly getting flavours of bands such as Dozer, Lowrider and Nebula. This could be a bad thing as music should always try and push boundaries in some way but in Trippy Wicked’s case they have really put their own stamp on it, with its grooves and soul but with always with good seasoning of doom. That might sound like contradictions but somehow they have managed to achieve it.
There are instrumental numbers which are concluded ‘Discoveries’, a delicious little number with its delicate lead guitar and trippy acoustic ending, as I said earlier there are surprises littered throughout. The final track ‘New Beginnings’ is none other than a great Sabbath-esque stoner rock jam and the guys bow out in style.
In conclusion this is a more than solid stoner rock EP, not afraid to give the nod to the legends that have come before but executed with a modern spin… sometimes groovy and always doomy. We can even forgive them for the dodgy name (sorry boys). Most importantly the riffs are awesome so what more do you need? Buy it!
