Solarized

Solarized tosses together all the components needed for universal stoner rock on Driven, the New Jersey outfit's 2001 Meteor City offering. Vocalist James Hogan, guitarist Dave Topolenski, drummer Reg Santana, and bassist Mike Fiore dish out some compact but downright lethal songs on this release. The riffs are appropriately heavy, and include all the right '70s proto-metal references. Stoner pioneers Kyuss come to mind when listening to the massive grooves on tracks like "Chrome Shop." The cowbell-driven "Angel" is another highlight with its fine linear riffing. Upbeat miscalculations "Stab Yor Back" and "Firefight" halt Driven's momentum, before "Conspiracy" and "World Without End" finish off the disc with a hazy blast of New Jersey stoner rock. On this record, Solarized demonstrates its ability to riff on the best elements of the geographically separate but thematically similar approaches of its genre. ~ Vincent Jeffries, All Music Guide