‘Spine of God’ was the debut 1991 album from Monster Magnet, although the original nine songs were shorter in total than ‘Tab’ which was deemed to be an EP, go figure! This version does contain an additional bonus song, namely a demo version of “Ozium” so at least this is slightly longer. Although a couple of songs did creep up to the eight-minute mark, overall this was a very different release to ‘Tab’. The music is punchier, more in your face, and although the psychedelic and space rock elements are still there, they are more controlled and more focussed so much so that although Hawkwind are in the building, it is Sabbath that is very much in control, albeit with some Floydian influences.
This is an album that has very much stood the test of time, probably because it was already out of time when it was released, as again this is an album that sounds as if it should have come out in the early Seventies as opposed to the early Nineties, so consequently sounds just as good today as it did then! There were still some years between the original release of this and ‘Powertrip’, but to my ears there is something very special about these early releases of the band and I hope that Napalm Records see fit to also release some of the other early releases as these are well worth hearing, and if like me you missed them first time around then now is the time to rectify that.
