Band : Planet Of Zeus

Album title : Eleven The Hard Way

Label : Casket Music

Distributor : Copro Productions/ PHD

Release date : 21/05/2008

Release : CD

Oh my, what a mistake! The fact sheet accompanying the promo copy of this Greek act's debut album mentioned a release date of May 21, when in fact that was a month earlier! Now since I always work by release date, and have quite a few reviews to get done each month, I didn't notice this fact until yesterday, when an info search also landed me on the Copro Records webpage!

Anyways, the history of this Athens based act goes back to the year 2000, when singer/ guitarist Babis and drummer Yog grew tired of not being uite able to express themselves within the bands they were playing with at the time, and decided to join forces. It would however take 'til 2002 before the guys actually founded the band when a suitable bassist was fond in J.V., and started playing some gigs (with other Greek bands) in and around their town. In Summer 2004 they the trio decided it was about time to take things a bit more serious, and recorded their first demo CD Loop 430. The second recording took place almost a year after, and two songs by the band were featured on the Spinalonga Records compilation In The Junkyard. Meanwhile, the band had expanded their playing field to the rest of Greece. Planet Of Zeus would start the recordings for their full-length debut Eleven The Hard Way in July 2006.

Early 2007, a chance came to expand the band's sound, when drummer Serapheim G. entered into the picture. Yog immediately grabbed for a guitar, and the band's line-up hasn't shifted since. It's in this line-up that the band was selected to play support to Hermano, when the latter's European tour took 'em to Athens. No need to say this lifted the band's profile somewhat, and only two months later the quartet sat around the table to sign a deal with Casket Music/ Copro.

To describe the band's music, it's best to use their own words which state that "...during all these years, they are just trying to have fun playing music and continue what bands like Motörhead, Black Sabbath, and Jimi HendrixExperience were doing in the past, mixing old days Hard sound with the 70s Rock 'n' Roll feeling. If one was to specify the genre that their music represents one would say Stoner Rock 'n' Roll..."...which is a pretty much on-the-spot description indeed. Promo copies having been sent out some time ago, the boys got the first airing of their music outside of Greece courtesy of none less than Bruce Dickinson, who played "Something's Wrong" (for which the band have since made a video which they posted on their Myspace page) on his Friday Rock Show in late March. No need to say that was positive publicity! Meanwhile, the band has already posted some site addresses for reviews (mostly from the Greek web media, and only one nót in the language of that country) in a blog at myspace.com/planetofzeus, from which I could gather that the reception of the album is pretty positive. Not overwhelming though, and I know of at least one paper magazine in Belgium which was less than entousiastic about Eleven The Hard Way. Possibly, the reviewer was not into Southern Rock/ Stoner? Personally, I would recommend the (nearly 49-minute) album to any fan of this specific musical direction, or to people into exploring the genre without necessarily turning to the bigger (say, more established) names. Each song gives the listener a chance to wallow away in an hypnotized mood. The more imaginative among us might even dream up a desert plane environment and get a parched mouth from doin' so! On two occasions (during "Something's Wrong" and again during "Stab Me") one of the other guys brings additional vocals on top of Babis' in a dual vocal passage. Two songs also contain sound samples, the first in "Woke Up Dead (William H. Bonney)" (which not surprisingly deals with the demise of Billy The Kid), the second during "Space Loop 430" (using NeilArmstrong's famous sentence "A small step for Man, a giant leap for mankind").Check out no less than 4 tracks ("Nervous Breakdown" is actually the hidden track which comes after a short silence following track 10...in my mind, satisfactorily explaining the album's title) off the album on their myspace pace. Additionally, some guy (going under the Cyanna monicker) has already done a remix of album track "Stab Me", giving some of the guitars an additional bit of heavieness while adding power beats and electronics to the track. Quite interesting if you're open-minded enough!

90/100

Tony.