Denmark’s Dragontears, appears to take its name from a Dean Koontz novel (though that may be coincidental), and function as a collaborative side-project for members of stoner rock bands Baby Woodrose and On Trial. Dragontears is the embodiment of pure evil. If you were to combine early Blue Öyster Cult with White Zombie, that alliance would describe the unholy sound conjured by this band, whose Turn On Tune In Fuck Off!! is being marked as the group’s third and final recording. Four of the songs here are in English, while the remaining two are in Danish. When I first heard the closing numbers “William” and “Mennesketvilling”, which are sung in Danish, I honestly thought they were part of a Satanic incantation that would raise the dead in my neighborhood. No, seriously. This is some scary shit.
There’s a bit of a break in the doom and gloom with the record’s third track, “My Friend”, which is an acoustic number that wouldn’t be out of place on, say, Led Zeppelin III. However, this is mostly a spacey, groovy and drone-based album that kicks out the jams in its first third. It’s exactly the sort of thing you’d expect from a band whose members include The Hobbit, Moody Guru, Fuzz Daddy and Anders “Evil Jebus” Onsberg. While the last part of the record will definitely produce a bowel movement in the pants of the listener, it is perhaps a tad too long. “William” clocks in at just over an unlucky 13 minutes, and Turn On Tune In Fuck Off!! really drags as a result. Still, Dragontears is a band that can be enjoyed under a psychedelic haze, and, with a bit of editing, could have turned its final album into something that is as suitably retro as it is downright harrowing.