According to the label, “Dr. Savage and the Shrunken Heads draws influences from primal 50’s R&B artists like Bo Diddley and Howling Wolf, savage 60’s garage acts like The Troggs and The Seeds, a punk energy of The Cramps, with a raw voodoo vibe of Screaming Jay Hawkins and Screaming Lord Sutch”. For once, the press release is absolutely bang on, just add Small Faces, Johnny Kidd & The Pirates and The Yardbirds and there you have it, garage rock that belongs in the Sixties but has been brought bang up to date. Now, one may think that this is yet another gimmick band using makeup and image, but while they do incorporate those elements there are more important aspects at play. Firstly, the guys all know what they are doing with their instruments, the songs are packed full of hooks, the songs cover a variety of different Sixties style, and best of all Kenneth Wessel can really sing.

The result is an album that is way more than the one-dimensional being that I honestly expected when I first put it on. The way they move and swing between different styles is just superb, and their version of the Stones’ “The Last Time” sounds as if it should have been released fifty years ago instead of 2018. These guys are playing the club scene in Southern California at present, but apparently they will soon be headed to Europe where I am convinced they are going to find a very welcoming audience. In some ways they remind me of Rocket From The Crypt, and they deserve the same sort of adoration and success.

Rating: 8/10

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