Chubby Thunderous Bad Kush Masters - Come & Chutney

With an album cover featuring three blokes in cream jumpers holding acoustic instruments on bland English hillside, Chubby Thunderous Bad Kush Masters are definitely here to pull your leg. They’re certainly not going to be playing twee folk down your local countryside pub, in fact, their own description has them down for tie-dye fuzz and stoner rock. The fact that their first full-length album is titled Come & Chutney should be the first tip-off that this band have their tongues firmly in their cheeks.

British bands don’t often pack a wallop without being incredibly dark, but Chubby Thunderous sounds like a gaggle of goblins pummelling you while operating a family fairground. Seven-minute opener ‘Doggy Bag Of Slurry’ delivers deep, throbbing guitars as well as numerous riff runs just in the two-minute intro, and once the vocals hit, you know you’re on to a different kind of stoner-rock winner.

Sounding like they’re having more fun than other bands who traverse this genre, the dark treacle of the guitars never stops the drums from running away with fills and rolls. ‘Cojones Feos’ provides a Sabbath-like melody to proceedings, whilst keeping up that sense that you’re being pursued.

Despite the vocals being growled out in a demonic fashion, they’re not so ugly as to be off-putting - while they are terrifying, it’s more in a psychedelic sense than you’d find with doom-metal bands. The cracking open of a beer, a burp and a gurgling fart precede a tense build up on ‘Gutlads’, and it’s moments like these which make things feel like a bit of a circus. Meanwhile, a wah-heavy guitar solo reminds you that you’re listening to band who have deep roots in stoner-rock.

Certainly this isn’t any typical band, they’re straddling two genres, and - by all accounts - putting on live performances to be reckoned with (all while in tie-dye tops). ‘Doner Trump’ leads with the throaty line “You’ve got your tiny dick, you fucking make me sick” which is seemingly their idea of political commentary. They clearly take their music seriously, but are having a hell of a time acting out while doing it.

The closing track, ‘Psychedelic Hallucinogenic Vagrancy’, is a ten-minute epic, with swirling pedal effects, an organ and a gospel-like female vocal section. It’s all the kind of stuff which could easily soundtrack the mooted sequel to Killer Klowns From Outer Space. If you’re looking to space out while throwing your head around, this is definitely the album to do it to.