Album: 5th Projekt – V

The only way I can describe 5^th Projekt’s sound and just how awesome they are, is by saying it’s as though early-album (Pre-‘To Venus and Back’ era) Tori Amos did Stoner Rock instead of the piano thing.

This Toronto outfit bills their style as Cinematic Rock, and I concur: the trippy, heavy, intense guitar and bass work and Tara Rice’s mystical voice have crafted something the likes of which I haven’t heard before; I’m looking forward to the chance to hear them live the next time they hit Montreal, where they already have a cult following.

The songs of ‘V’ are cathartic and compelling.  Listen to the album when you can just close your eyes and relax, and focus on the music, let it do with you as it will.  There may be a story arc about the birth and death of an intense relationship buried in the album’s lyrical poetry, but this ‘V’ has so many layers you’re compelled to listen to it over and over again just to explore all the Penrose-Stair levels and hidden meanings that it has.

There’s just a hint of The Cramps’ “Like a Bad Girl Should” guitar work used in the intro and rhythms of the subtle, sardonic, confident and trippy “Psych 66”, and it works quite well to build the song around that core.

‘V’ peaks just after the halfway, on the sensual, transcendental “Juggernaut”.  This one’s a sultry slow-burn, building in intensity musical, lyrical and vocal…and just when you think you know what’s coming, the lyrics-in-tribute borrowed from Led Zeppelin come in, and it’s pure sex for the ears before hitting a rock-out finale when the levee finally does break.

The last 4 songs are a bittersweet afterglow of come-down vibes and let-down lyrics, including a devotional tribute to the first of the Female Stoner Rock Vocalists: Tara Rice does Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit”, leading them to close perfectly with the Grunge-like chill and burn out, “= Love”.

But talking about this album doesn’t do it justice; you have to listen to it to truly appreciate it.

There’s even fucking Metadata on the songs of this CD!

5^th Projekt: V – 10/10