Style: Psychedelic rock, stoner rock, hard rock (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Elder, Green Lung, Elephant Tree
Country: Poland
Release date: 27 February 2026

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My wife is from Bolivia. Having traveled to the country many times enjoying my better half’s family, friends, and culture both there and in my native USA, I’ve eaten lots of Bolivian food. While delicious, some of the more popular plates in the country (like silpancho) are also very carb heavy: rice, potatoes, and even a hunk of white bread all share the plate with a slab of protein. That half-carb, half-protein ratio often leaves me wanting less of the former—because food comas are real, and sometimes I’m full long before I’m fulfilled. Abundance and balance rarely walk hand-in-hand.

Stoner rock often works the same way. It started as a space where heaviness and psychedelia enhanced each other. Over time, some of its tropes have become mandatory rather than meaningful. Trippy intros, extended interludes, and stringy synth ambience are all but required inclusions that make the genre pander to hippies and stoners. But for all its cosmic imagery and heady associations, stoner rock ultimately lives or dies on the weight of its riffs, anchoring the songs and keeping the psychedelia from drifting. I want riffs that are physical—the protein on the plate—so the psychedelia doesn’t turn into a mountain of unseasoned carbs I have to eat my way through before getting to anything satisfying. That instinct to lean on the riffs is what separates the wheat from the chaff in stoner rock, and it’s exactly what I’m listening for when I approach any record in the genre. Weedpecker’s V is no exception.

So, when the album, ahem, tripped right out of the gate, I began to worry. The intro track (creatively titled “Intro”) isn’t much of one. Its ambient, spacey synths make vague gestures at mood setting, but come to an abrupt end before the next track starts. There’s no connective tissue, no sense of transition—just atmosphere cut off mid thought. One of my main gripes with the genre is repetitive, forgettable atmosphere for its own sake, and “Intro” commits the cardinal sin of being completely disposable, like white rice without any sauce to make it bearable.

Thankfully, V quickly finds its footing. “Fading Whispers” gives me everything I want from stoner rock. Downtuned pentatonic riffs thrum under lead guitar licks that give the track flavor; soaring harmonized vocals hover atop groovy rhythm in the song’s apex; deft transitions that have me immediately rewinding to hear them again—and yes, even a serving of psychidelia—all coalesce into a beast of a song. Not to heap too much praise on it, but the track sounds like it could have fit in perfectly on Elder’s Omens. Also worth noting is that the opening three minutes of “Fading Whispers” would have served just fine as an ambient-adjacent intro to the album, again making “Intro” an odd choice.

“Ash” and “Mirrors” are other noteworthy tracks. The only other noteworthy tracks, actually. But any attempt to describe them in detail would mostly have me repeating what I already highlighted for “Fading Whispers.” On the whole, V is unfortunately very carb heavy. Between the riffier tracks’ intros, interludes, and outros, and other forgettable tracks made up completely of psychedelia (“In the Dark We Shine,” “The Last Summer of Youth”), almost half the album’s runtime is given over to indulgent stretches of that stoner, hazy hypnosis. Mid-tempo grooves that wander without developing, reverbed-out leads that drift lazily, and interludes built on synth pads and textural noodling (i.e. carbs) drive a healthy chunk of the album. None of it is actively unpleasant, but it’s occupying space in the wrong way. By the time it’s over, I’m full before I’m fulfilled.

Most stoner rock releases follow one of two production styles that I’ll simplify to muddy or crunchy. While either is a valid choice, V wades too far into the mud. Such thick muck can work really well when riffs are built from moving, individual notes—and V certainly has those kinds of riffs. But the riffs also lean heavily on low-end power-chords, and in this muddy production style they lose all definition, drowning in the cavernous fuzz and oomphy bass, particularly in the middle section of “Ash” or the louder moments of “Fading Riffs Whispers.” I wouldn’t even level this critique at V if it didn’t occur almost exclusively in those moments where I’m most actively engaged with the album, marring some of the most satisfying moments.

Weedpecker hit the mark when riffs lead the charge, but V spends too much time gorging on psychedelic tropes, leaving the album with a contradictory sense of both bloat and not enough meat (which I could say about most stoner rock albums). Nothing’s bad—just indulgent, familiar, and forgettable once the plate is cleared. It’s tasty enough in the moment, but I’m not lining up for seconds.

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Recommended tracks: Fading Whispers, Mirrors
You may also like: Howling Giant, Sergeant Thunderhoof, Slung
Final verdict: 5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Heavy Psych Sounds Records

Weedpecker is:
– Piotr Dobry (guitars, vocals, synths)
– Piotr Kuks (bass)
– Zbigniew Promiński (drums)
– Piotr Sadza (synths)
– Tomasz Walczak (synths)