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The recent slew of sludgy, stoned, heavy rock bands currently making the rounds on the indie-rock circuit are going over wonderfully with all the people who grew up listening to metal, and who still maintain that music that just plain “rocks” is important. Dead Meadow is almost one of those bands, though they’re redeemed, if only just barely, by their penchant for psychedelic, Nuggets-style blues-rock. They also have an incredibly frustrating tendency to write songs that are completely indistinguishable from one another. It’s all dirty, wide-open blues riffs and a steady (or lazy) rhythm section, with understated singing from Jason Simon, who appears to have only written one vocal melody, ever. They’ve included some acoustic tracks to shake things up, but those don’t really do anything either, with the exception of ‘I’m Gone’, which combines a gentle, swinging acoustic guitar with fuzzed-out solos and a memorable melody. It’s not enough to save Old Growth from itself, but it’s something
