‘Highwired’ has a catchy riff-and-rhythm combination – as catchy as I’ve ever heard from the trio, to be fair. That mix, though. 33 seconds in I cringed at the sheer wrongness of it all. At the 1:12 mark, I was starting to get it, to let a bit of the groove and displacement of vocals, the chitter-chattery guitars into my uncloudy, not-high brain. By 2:30, I was all in, impressed that a band I never really cared for managed to pull something out of its baggie that not only held my attention, but take notice.

Bluesy in a slinky sort of way, greasy and delightfully so, the title track arrives, soon enough (d)evolving into some ill-fitting bridge, then descending into general noise tossed in for its own sake, before, wait…no, yes. Nope, all I can hear in parts of this is a slightly fiddled-with BLUE OYSTER CULT riff, and that’s something I cannot abide. Listen, you’ll see what I mean. Could be ‘Career Of Evil’, could be ‘Burning For You’, could be ‘(Don’t Fear) The Reaper’, but what’s important is that’s it’s not original whatsoever, and borders on outright plagiarism to my ears. ‘Melt Your Head’ does its best to live up to its name, but either I’m on the wrong sort of trip or it really is just a jumble of guitar hack-and-slash, some “trippy” effects, an occasional drum hit or three.

At over 7 minutes, ‘Warzone Speedwulf’ reminds me of everything I never liked about NEBULA, simply because it’s all here. Crap, how could a desert rock band not including Josh Homme be so full of itself as to think anyone with the barest minimum of musical taste would enjoy this meandering, directionless tripe. There’s nothing memorable about it, and I know, because I’m already halfway through, ‘I Got So High’ and I’ve blessedly forgotten this aurally traumatic part of my past.

And I suppose we’ll just leave this here as it is. Yes, yes, Eddie Glass. We know you love your weed, your hallucinogenic substances, but you’ve been hitting it for so long it seems you really feel like anything you toss out is “good enough”. It isn’t. Your band is the shake, the seeds and stems, the ditch weed of stoner rock. And Transmission From Mothership Earth actually makes me want to stop smoking.
Review By: Lord Randall

NEBULA
Transmission From Mothership Earth
Heavy Psych Sounds
1 / 6