At this point in time we’re staring down the barrel of tribute and revision with regard to historicity rather than nostalgia as the late 60’s/early 70’s heavy rock arousal is depicted via several generations deep caricaturized approximation rather than recreated lived experience. Despite the potential devolutionary echo chamber available there are yet surprises to be found in particularly attentive students of the old ways, those who’d realize the freedom of expression available to transitional periods in heavy rock rather than defined commercial straits. Such is the case of Baltimore, Maryland-based heavy psychedelic rock trio MAGICK POTION who’d fuse the garage-level acid rock uprising with the body rocking heavy psych sling found beyond 1969. On their debut full-length album, ‘Magick Potion‘, an authentic feeling of changing times and new-world realizations tint their tilt toward intricate yet harder hit rock music, treating the old ways as broader ouevre in developing personage beyond blues-swung expression. While this authenticity will sell itself quick thanks to a few big riffs and buzzed tones up front the reach of this debut comes by way of these folks having a knack for a full-ranged album, a trip contained within a longplayer’s overall reach, rather than a few buffed-out singles.

Magick Potion formed at some point prior to 2021 between founder guitarist/vocalist Dresden Boulden, bassist Triston Grove, and drummer Jason Kendall who’d all arrive upon their circa ’68 ’til ’72 acid rock inspired heavy psych sound through some time spent developing vintage tones and looser heavy blues rock jams. Likely named after a prime LP from The Black Keys‘ early career the earliest performances from the trio I’ve found online, alongside their digitally released first EP (‘Early Works‘, 2021), suggest the honed-in specificity of their sound on this debut foundered its roots in a specific period of heavy blues rock ’til heavy metal comedown applied to looser, jammed performances. The first several songs they’d written weren’t as riff driven, punchy as we’ll find on ‘Magick Potion‘ up front, swinging easier into early comparisons made to the unsteady concoction of blues rock, psychedelia and latent muscle memory from British prog’s still spiking interest in the late 60’s. In this sense sure, the face value Blue Cheer comparisons kinda made sense as the band were in development though at this point we’ve got several generations of retro rock revisionism to pull from otherwise. The important note to take is that these folks were aiming for the uncertain realm where heavy-lidded, bluesy psychedelia and garage-built acid rock swatting gave way to earliest heavy metal’s performative grooves and chunkier tones.

And you’ll feel the blur of time as soon as it hits your wagging tongue on opener “Fever Dream” where we do get some of that ‘Vincebus Eruptum‘ and ‘Outsideinside‘-era chunkiness in tone yet the first of several riffs that hit do so wizened to an early 70’s affront short of the wistful darkness of ‘Death Walks Behind You‘ but heavy as the first Sir Lord Baltimore record in its press. We’re just as quickly stepping a couple years back in time with the slinking dripped-slow step of “Empress”, a chance to show a steadied hand applied to that blues rock core while still getting a few of those heavier hits in. Those first two pieces engage with some immediacy bringing a ballsy, swaggering heavy rock feeling to the listener with great confidence and if that was all Magick Potion did I believe they’d melt easier into the vintage rock headspace as a “proto-metal” minded point of interest but that isn’t the breakthrough, or even the lede beyond a particularly authentic but amped-up production value and general sound.

For my own taste the “Dancing Madly Backwards”-esque feeling step into “Never Change“, its early Hendrix style sing-alongside its guitar licks and warm percussive riffing had me sold on the Magick Potion directive from first listen but it hadn’t under any certain terms unveiled the doomed, weird-handed psychedelia available to the lower and slower pieces on the full listen. In this sense a song like “Wizard” has a sort of peak stoner revived (a la Witchcraft) B-side creep to it one minute and downstream we find (what reads to me as) a 90’s alt-rock adjacent psych rock experiment on “Pagan”. At any rate the point to make is that they’ve got a galaxy-brained level of study under their belt in terms of not only the old shuffling steps of ancient heavy rock but an earful of various waves of revival and resuscitation at their disposal. This makes for a brilliant level of variety when it comes to changing up the guitar tone, pacing, and cadence which makes for a moody and alluring heavy rock record that has more to offer than a few stolen riffs and vintage clothes to sport on the way through.

If you’re restless and generally can’t hang with a certain nihil-creeping-in early 70’s vibe the steady breeze of “Chateau” and its build-up or the tassel stroking laze into “Wild Perfumes” probably won’t hit as intended, potentially even appearing as jammed-up filler for the song-skipping, tormented mind. Per my own experience these were some of the most characterizing motions made on ‘Magick Potion‘ where we get more than throwback psychedelia redux. It isn’t all that often that we find thoughtful and worthy direct connections made with the lux bad trip of late 60’s psych rock and the easier-riding fuzzed and trilled-out swing of blues built heavy psych. They’ve lined up these elemental forms with some great authentic sense and it makes for a well-rounded heavy rock record, one that leans into its loud highs and quiet lows enough to feel like a natural result. It also gives the skull room to breathe as Magick Potion strut and swing as often as they recline and take it all in.

All in all I’d appreciated that ‘Magick Potion‘ is a work conscious of the subtleties and potential of late 60’s/early 70’s heavy blues rock and psychedelic headspace as well as the mutated zeitgeist formed later on. In presenting their own reality, which offers some quality-of-life revisionism without becoming additive to any certain wave, we find Magick Potion‘s take on vintage heavy psych/acid rock authentic in its tribute and immersed to the point of “getting it” down pat in a way that reads as their own. When we begin to consider more than the first impression and the biggest riffs there is a brilliantly rounded, memorable rock record with very, very few rough edges to peck at. A high recommendation.

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