Haunted Leather - Red Road Review

Deth Trip Records

"Red Road" has been a tough album to get my head around, and it's an even tougher one to review.
Oh, and it's absolutely glorious.
Confused? Let me start at the beginning....
"Red Road" is Haunted Leather's second album, and you can probably imagine what it sounds like by looking at the cover - and odds are you'll guess right.
That's right, Haunted Leather are another American heavy psych outfit who tick all the normal boxes for the genre; masses of reverb - especially on the guitars which sound HUGE, an organ player who doesn't so much play as lean on certain chords, heavy drones, and a near constant mid tempo beat that lasts from the first minute until the last.
What sets Haunted Leather apart from their peers is their complete mastery of atmosphere and mood. Every listen to "Red Road" transports me somewhere bleak, spacious and windswept in a way that only Calexico's "Black Light" and Earth's "The Bees Made Honey In The Lions' Head" have previously managed.
And herein lies the problem for a reviewer.  Clearly this is not an album to be approached in a cerebral fashion, but in terms of visceral grip and non-pharmaceutically induced trance induction this is pretty much unbeatable. Sure, there will be some detractors who will perhaps moan about a lack of variety, but that's missing what I perceive as the point entirely.
It's quite a trip for the right type of listener. Download or stream through the link below to find out whether that's you:

Limited edition vinyl can be preordered through this link for January delivery.