For every stoner band that is worth their own salt, there’s an absolute menagerie of others who simply do not stack up to the task at hand. We could sit here for ages and consider what it means to make worthwhile stoner music with only the few and naturally gifted able to deliver performances of greatness out of the gate with many taking years to become forces to be reckoned with should they keep their focus. For over ten years now, Kal-El has become the embodiment of just that. Their brand of stoner rock and metal crossover with doom tendencies is something that has garnered them great respect, and while it would be great to already see another expansive record after last year’s “Dark Majesty”, sometimes a brief but tasteful stop can make for a truly wondrous time.

Given what Kal-El has become known for at this point with five full-length albums and two EPs before this year under their belts, a work like “Moon People” is far from a surprise in practically every given way. It could easily be seen as nothing more than a pair of tracks that didn’t make it to the final vision of “Dark Majesty”, the fourteen and a half minutes that are on display here are nowhere near worthy of being dismissed as many such pieces fall victim to constantly. In classic Kal-El fashion, this is an EP that fans of the sound should not miss. I would have loved to have gotten more, but the brief nature of the EP adds to the factor of intoxication brought about by a fantastically tempered sense of heaviness combined with impeccable melodies that come together for a bombastic overall sound that grabs you by the balls while still making sure that you have a damn good time with the wind flowing through your hair at Mach three. Superficially, “Moon People” does not have much to call its own but at its very core, you can find the very ideals that have always made stoner music something that has kept people coming back time after time, year after year, and album after album.

Kal-El may not be the first that many think of when they consider modern greatness of what it means to deliver some of the most intrinsic and captivating stoner material out there, but their reputation is nothing to be denied. Be it in expansive creations that stretch over an hour long or brief excursions like what we have here with “Moon People”, Kal-El’s potency is nothing that can be argued.

“Moon People” releases on September 22nd via Majestic Mountain Records!

LISTEN to Kal-El on Bandcamp here.

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