by Patrick KennedyNot surprisingly, given the nature of the cover art -- pot leaves and distorted photos of large speaker cabinets set against a backdrop of volcanic imagery -- Sons of Otis play fairly conventional (nothing groundbreaking) stoner doom rock. The shoe fits. Like Electric Wizard and Sleep -- though Sleep was a more interesting band and developed into the even more interesting High on Fire -- Sons of Otis have taken some of the essential cues of very early Black Sabbath or Pentagram, the visual aesthetic as well as the sound, and boiled them to the bone. What remains is a very Spartan attempt, capturing the most basic of riffs, slowing them down to a crawl, and playing them over and over through distortion. Naturally, there are obvious -- but poor -- nods to other psychedelic and proto-metal bands such as Hendrix, Captain Beyond, Cream, and Blue Cheer, but not with even a 16th of the dynamic range or songwriting capabilities. Actually, this sounds even closer to a Helios Creed album stripped of its uniqueness. What vocals are present have been submerged in the mix. Even though Electric Wizard sounds nearly indistinguishable from Sons of Otis, it's the former's subtle aggression that makes them the more interesting attempt. Not bad, just bland.