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Retro Grave
“Retro Grave” EP
(Upland Recordings)

In every sense of it, Retro Grave is the one man project of none other than Jeff ‘Oly’ Olson, Trouble’s original and current drummer. Playing all instruments and handling all vocal duties in addition to putting it out on his own label, this EP was something of an enigma which on the one hand had me thinking it was a very ambitious one man effort in producing more Trouble style doom metal whilst on the other hand had me thinking this was one of the weirdest albums I’ve listened to in a while. Allow me to explain.....there’s the famed power doom guitar riffs and the expected pounding drums which is all good stuff. However, Jeff then introduces lots of weird trippy sounds and his vocals vary from slow drawling to poor Ozzy wailings. With an album cover that almost seems to be a pisstake of Trouble’s ‘Simple Mind Condition’ featuring his own stuffed head on a salad platter I had to wonder if he was just trying to be humorous or different but either way it prompts the question of just where he’s taking Retro Grave. Perhaps he didn’t want to produce a Trouble clone but I haveta say that that’s where Retro Grave’s strengths lie - and I certainly can’t get enough Trouble - so I’d suggest he leave the weirdness to the likes of Les Claypool.

-Shan Siva