I was not familiar with Dub Trio before being asked for this review.

I was really surprised to find that “Dub Trio” was acutally a stoner rock band. The Melvins influence on thier music is unmistakenalble, and the recent interaction they have had with Mike Patton was also very present as an influence. This new collection called “IV” is a METAL album..a PROG-METAL album…As I said above, I am not familiar with their previous releases, but if this is what they are normally like…I am confused. The time signatures are reminscent of mid 70′s euro-prog, and fast-paced Fripp compositions ala Crimson..but in general the chord based metal riffs were very standard grunge metal hooks. I found the use of electronics for the “dub” effects they
attempt to incorporate to be almost forced, and very unlike the fluid and flowy groove vibe that comes naturally with the traditional use of the dub style and technique. The exception to this is the final track “Thousand Mile Stare” which really gets into some psychdelic dub grooves..but again it has an overall “stoner rock” feel to it (think Nugent’s Stranglehold).  The track titled “1:1.:618″ is the only really original and different track on the release, if the entire album had been more experimental and interesting like this track I would have probably enjoyed it more. For me it was pretty tame, & fairly predictable…I played with my cat while listening to most
of it. It would probably be fun to drive to, or to use for a soundtrack while tripping in the desert. – LOB23