CD Review

The Queens of the Stone Age have nailed the sound of California groove with their cryptic metal boogie. Now frontman, Josh Homme, has struck out on a side project – Eagles of Death Metal – further enrapturing their part beer commercial/go-go bar/dusty 70's sound. That may seem an odd mix for a band boasting death metal in their moniker, but these Eagles are certainly stepping out of the cold and into sweat drenched rock and roll with their debut Peace Love Death Metal.

Their sexually charged album of self-indulged, groovy rock surely proves that the band is having a drunken ol’ grand time, but what about the rest of us? Hiding their identities with cheeky liner note nicknames, each song shakes with Satanism and screwing, while reeking of an empty sixer of Schlitz. A cover of Steelers Wheel’s "Stuck in the Middle With You," is tweaked with a predictable pun– "Stuck in the Metal With You" - and while the song choice couldn’t be more obvious, they should have just stuck with the "middle.’ However, "Middle Creeper" churns with Canned Heat, 60’s hippie boogie, and "Speaking in Tongues" and "Flames Go Higher" rev up the engines, and somehow pull off a much needed retro coolness about it all. Eagles of Death Metal, like Homme’s counterpart Queens of the Stone Age, certainly nails the desert groove, but leaves much to be desired for originality. Just like that familiar beer ad – "Step out of the cold and into the old."