vote
7.5
- Bands:
CROBU - Duration: 00:38:18
- Available from: 05/23/2026
In recent years we have often listened to many stoner groups from Sardinia (Bentrees, Fuzzriders, Basaltic Plateau), and it doesn't surprise us that much that Crobu come from the same land.
In any case, if we cataloged the group within this category, we would perhaps commit a partial error of evaluation, despite the fact that the quartet themselves are keen to present themselves with this very term, both for the description of the sound and for the reference bands.
Crobu's debut, “More Than This” – impeccably self-produced, among other things – distances itself from the aura of pleasant mediocrity that has characterized much of the stoner production of recent years, preferring to position itself in the historical period between the beginning of the nineties and the new millennium, an era in which groups of non-strictly grunge extraction approached the genre in curious and exciting crossover experiments.
Of course, the fat and electric sound of Kyuss remains an undeniable inspiration for the four musicians, as do some guitar digressions typical of space rock (“Awake”, with its chord sequence that takes us directly back to “Welcome To The Sky Valley”), but the band shows that it knows how to work on the songs as well as on the sound, proposing a series of particularly successful melodies, capable of moving the listener's gaze well beyond the usual desert horizon.
“More Than This”, if we want, presents two different interpretations: on the one hand it is a delightful kaleidoscope of references and quotations, on the other a collection of songs that do not tire, on the contrary, that can be listened to again with pleasure. Take “Crows”, for example, where a southern sludge ride slyly nestles around a typically Alice In Chains melody, or the title track, which shows off Tad's heavy (but still catchy) step of “8 Way Santa”, and you'll have an idea of the group's potential.
The inspirations, as we were saying, are multiple: in “The Bleed”, for example, Anthrax led by John Bush appear, while “Even Worse” is actually stoner, but in the way in which the Screaming Trees would interpret the genre, between choirs and hard blues digressions.
In an already satisfying setlist, two songs still manage to stand out: “Full Speed Ahead” (whose guitar riff is heavily indebted to “I Don't Know Anything” by Mad Season) and the final “I Am The Leaf”, a ballad with a poignant melody that counterbalances a rough and electric arrangement that the good Jerry Cantrell would be jealous of.
“More Than This” is consequently an excellent debut that combines musical culture (this album is the result of careful listening), passion for multiple genres (hard rock, grunge and stoner) and a compositional talent that must be cultivated. For once, once again, sound doesn't matter without good songs.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
