Floodstain



2007 - Dreams Make Monsters

Quintessence
(4/6)

Holland’s Floodstain finally seems to have found its shape and with “Dreams Make Monsters” they have delivered a pretty good album filled with heavy stonerrock. A bit in the vein of Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age; just listen to ‘Love is Poison’, but also they resemble bands like 35007 or AstroSoniq. Fortunately Floodstain don’t use any psychedelic influences; they simply keep it all rocking. The production is pretty good and fits the style perfectly; it’s all very heavy which is good.
I have to admit that although “Dreams Make Monsters” is a good record I do miss that little bit of an own identity. It simply feels you have heard the songs before which can be seen as either a good thing or a bad thing. It’s either not original enough or it is so catchy you think you have heard it before. In my case I’d say it’s the first option.
I do have to give vocalist Boy credit for his excellent vocals that fit the music really well. So, a pretty good stoner album, but nothing extraordinary!

Reviewed by: Pim Blankenstein

True Metal
(may 2008)

Floodstain from Netherlands, whose first album "Get It..." was released in 2001, was a surprise for me. I got hold of their last year's album "Dreams Make Monsters" (2007). I am not really a big fan of the latest Stoner Rock trend, but this specific album surprised me a lot. And it did it in the most primitive ways that one can imagine - catchy melodies, simple rythms, dirty, emotionally full filled vocals, sound of garage, which in general makes the atmosphere very special as the first tones of the album reach the listener.One of the most interesting facts is that the basic Stoner Rock stars come from USA (Kyuss,Down, Hellyeah etc), but these dudes from Netherlands reach exactly the same tune as the mentioned USA stars, but despite that I could hear that Floodstain has their special spice - a lot of blues. The song "You Lose Alone" sounds 100% blues style, this flows through the whole album - smoky pub, lots of whiskey, unshaved men and kinky waitresses with drinks. This is the picture that Floodstain creates with their "Dreams Make Monsters". It really makes one believe that this was recorded in a pub. Powerful.

Reviewed by: Kaspars

Antichrist Zine
(february 2008)
(4/5)

He-he, I see Jeff from HEAVY LORD is a hardworking guy. FLOODSTAIN is a project of Jeff, and for sure, music isn't far from main goal of HL one. Yea, here's stoner rock music. I must to admit, all things are done on very high level! Music is played without any trendy nowadays shit exactly. When I listen to this CD, I'm like come back into '70-'80, when rock music was honest and interesting. For sure here are great count of tempo-changes, bulldozzer-like guitar parts, and good solos here and there, all are deluted with good vocals also. I also liked those catching tempo-changes around this album, I mean now you can hear fast tempos tune, then you will get great slow-down also, and this is usually thing over here! Someones says that such music is strange, but I totally don't agree with them, I also don't understanding, why they think so... All in all here are 7 tracks on about 46 minutes of good feelings. So if you are into stoner rock music – don't hesitate to get this CD and enjoy with this driving blast! Great, decent work, no more to say. Jeff living in Holland, but he's Ukrainian, and I think if he ‘till now lived on Ukraina, he wasn't been able to create such music...

Reviewed by: Alex Maximov

Metal Rage
(december 2007)
(68/100)

Floodstain is a Dutch stoner rock ‘n’ roll band which started out a couple of years ago. They underwent some line-up changes and released their first album in 2001. Now in 2008, they bring us Dreams Make Monsters via BadMoonMan Music from Russia.

The sound this band is aiming at is that of bands like Kyuss, Queens Of The Stone Age and Fu Manchu. Unfortunately the level of those bands isn’t achieved by Floodstain yet, but they did manage to record a couple of cool rock songs. Biggest minor is the voice of vocalist Boy, which isn’t all that great yet. Especially in the track ‘You Lose Alone’ you can hear this. Funny fact is that in this tracks he states in his lyrics ‘cause I still miss your love’ (oh the Bon Jovi!) and two tracks earlier he’s singing a track called ‘Love Is Poison’. So what he’s saying is that he misses her poison. What? I thought it was funny…

Back to the music then, the sound of the recordings is very nice I might say. Nice and heavy with a good fuzzy distortion on the guitar. It’s just that I can’t stand to listen to the vocals for the full eight tracks, although he started out quite all right in the beginning of the album. Perhaps some more practice and professional lessons can lift him just that little bit higher.

In the end the vocals sort of ruin it, but I definitely hear a cool rock band here. Perhaps I will see them on stage someday and see how they manage in a live environment.

Reviewed by: DemonDust