Balero – Demo (Self-Release)
By Chris Barnes
September 24, 2005
Some of you older fans of bong rock will remember Karma to Burn, a incendiary instrumental three piece that boasted a woefully short shelf life. Rumors abounded that KTH were just about to record a full length CD with a litany of guest vocalists including Fear Factory’s Burton C. Bell and COC’s Pepper Keenan among others, when the band split up. Bassist Richard Mullins went on to Speedealer and then to serious drug problems. The other two are lost to the annals of stoner rock.
Why the long monologue about KTB? I dunno exactly, except that Balero, composed of three likeminded musicians from the Wilkes-Barre, PA area, remind me of a KTB, but without the drug issues. Both are heavy, percussive and groove-centric instrumental-based bands that might or might not sound better with a vocalist to fill things out, hard to say. The one thing I do know, with a high degree of certainty, Balero has chops. Based on the four songs presented here, they mesh well as a power trio, rocking with that kinda bulls-balls swing that made early Sabbath so friggin’ enjoyable.
Sure, Balero is derivative, this sort of thing has been done before. But really, what hasn’t? At this point it’s all about the
feel and the quest for the Holy Grail of riffs and while they may still be searching for that one friggin’ Golden riff (along with every other heavy music band), they got the
feel part down pat. A nice start, let’s hope it leads somewhere.
Visit the Balero website at www.balero.net
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