The second album from the

progressive, socially conscious doom powerhouse The Hidden Hand, 2004's Mother Teacher Destroyer had been in stock here at Crucial Blast when it

first came out, but for some reason when we sold out, it was completely deleted from our catalog. The only possible explanation for such an infraction would

have been a momentary freon binge on the part of yours truly, as Mother Teacher Destroyer is such an ass-kicking, momentous missive from the mouths

of rock monarch Scott """"Wino"""" Weinrich (Obsessed, Saint Vitus, Spirit Caravan, Place Of Skulls, Probot, etc.,), bassist Bruce Falkinburg and

drummer Dave Hennessy that it needs to be heard by all devotees of riff-crunching protest music. The 11 jams that make up this album flow together

to reveal a radical spiritual rock statement against the dark insanity of the present moment, the songs straddling the stripped down fury of prime era

hardcore and punk as conveyed through a mesmerizing fusion of crushing, lumbering MD/DC doom and 70's prog/psych rock. This entire album is crucial, but some

of the most amazing moments are heard in the Pink Floyd-meets-The Obsessed psych sludge of 'The Crossing' and the dreamy, nebulous 'Black Ribbon', the way

that Wino channels Ozzy over the acoustic/doom guitar layers of 'Half Mast', 'Draco Vibrations' elliptical instrumental kraut workout, 'Currents' epic

vocoder space thud, and the killer instrumental sci-fi doomfest 'The Deprogramming of Tom Delay'. Yeah, as far as I'm concerned anything that Wino touches is

gold, but regardless of wether or not you're a fan of his past work, The Hidden Hand is delivering some of the most righteous heavy psych/metal/doom/whatever

around right now.