Clutch: Robot Hive/Exodus

Herald rating: * * * * *

Help is at hand for those of you longing for the hazy yet enlightening days of stoner rock, when Kyuss were kings and Monster Magnet were monstrous. Clutch are back, and heavy blues rock has never sounded so stoned.

Formed in 1991, they've been lumped in with Korn, and, ahem, Coal Chamber. But Clutch are different, they've always had that Led Zeppelin influence oozing from their sweaty pores and are more diverse.

With keyboard and organ player Mick Schauer in the band fulltime, the blues are front of stage.

Schauer provides everything from keyboard jabs on Tripping the Alarm, to raunchy psychedelia on Never Be Moved, to a smoky blues organ on Land of Pleasant Living.

This is all mixed up superbly with rampant, rockin' riffs and the slack-jawed howl of singer Neil Fallon.

The line "R.E.O. Speedwagon, gets us to Boston", in opening track, The Incomparable Mr Flannery is typical of Clutch's humour - all tongue-in-cheek, while getting a serious boogie-woogie groove on.

Kickin' out the jams hasn't sounded this good in years.

Label: DRT/Shock