Andrew Stockdale

Wolfmother fans must have feared the worst these past few years. Some time after the release of second album, Cosmic Egg, – lead album in these pages in October 2009, and a Top 20 hit in the US – the Brisbane four-piece went ominously quiet. Had they split? Were they on hiatus? Eventually, in March 2011, word spread that they were back in the studio working on a follow-up. Then it all went quiet again…

Wolfmother Lead Vocalist, Lead guitarist and the only original member left, announced his second solo album, called "Slipstream". The album is due to be released on September 14th 2018 via Middle-Man Records.

After more lineup changes, Wolfmother emerges with its fourth proper album. Guitarist, frontman, and songwriter Andrew Stockdale remains the only founding member. On Victorious, he plays all guitars and basses, with hired studio drummers Josh Freese and Joey Waronker, and Ian Peres on keyboards. This is a messy collection that attempts to expand on the scope of the swaggering, bluesy hard rock of the band's first two albums. It was recorded in Hollywood with producer Brendan O'Brien, whose signature drum-heavy sound seems to saturate these proceedings with phase-shifted sonic effects.

Swapping out his rhythm section, Andrew Stockdale proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that he's the mastermind of Wolfmother on Cosmic Egg, creating a second record that is essentially a replication of the first, equally enamored with all the thick, heavy rock of the '70s, specifically Sabbath and Zeppelin, tempered with a little bit of Jack White caterwaul. All the sounds remain the same, but the songs have changed: with the occasional exception, such as the Stripes-ian salute "White Feather," Stockdale backs away from simple, brutal riff-driven songs, preferring churning exercises in heavy fantasy, sometimes colored with some Deep Purple organ.

There's no denying Australian heavy rock trio Wolfmother has been raised on rock – specifically, raised on '70s rock. Problem is, from all appearances on their eponymous debut, they made their journey into the past via the twin gateway drugs of the White Stripes and Queens of the Stone Age, and once they dug back to the original Zeppelin and Sabbath texts (stopping along the way for some Soundgarden discs and maybe, for lyrical inspiration, Yes and Rush), they indulged so much it screwed with their sense of aesthetics.

There's no denying Australian heavy rock trio Wolfmother has been raised on rock – specifically, raised on '70s rock. Problem is, from all appearances on their eponymous debut, they made their journey into the past via the twin gateway drugs of the White Stripes and Queens of the Stone Age, and once they dug back to the original Zeppelin and Sabbath texts (stopping along the way for some Soundgarden discs and maybe, for lyrical inspiration, Yes and Rush), they indulged so much it screwed with their sense of aesthetics.