The Third Eye

Blasting out of the Toulouse, France, stoner rock scene is a band called Black Drop, which released its first album, Octopus, over the summer of 2023. The band plays an aggressive stoner rock style with tentacles reaching into grunge, alternative, and even some progressive.

The power trio of Black Drop consists of Pedro on drums, Alex on bass, and Joselito on guitars and vocals, and the group released their first music in 2020 with the four-track EP, Red Moon. For Octopus, all tracks were mixed and mastered by Guillaume Besson at Branlougat Records.

The rather unusual cover artwork featuring the bulldog was done by Mélanie Butez (IG: @melaniebutezphoto), and the cute puppy is named Patate (you can also find him on IG @patate_la_bulldog).

Black Drop delivers deliciously fuzzy grunge melodies on Octopus that offer a throwback to the Nineties with strong alternative and stoner influences. I’ll add that the band plays with a vicious punk-rock energy, too, and that vocalist Joselito also delivers his vocals like a punk rocker.

Octopus consists of nine songs and a runtime of nearly 49 minutes of pure, raw energy. The title track starts the party, dropping heavy riffs that may blow out your speakers depending on how loud you listen. Other great tracks include “Charlize,” “Getting Ready,” and “When the Storm.”

“Charlize” is an excellent and energetic instrumental track that shows the band’s progressive rock side as it shifts into various modes throughout the nearly six-minute runtime. “Getting Ready” is another excellent, longer track that sees Black Drop mix heavy and light sections to maximum effect. “When The Storm” is the record’s longest song at nearly eight minutes, and it rocks every bit as hard as the rest of the album. 

There’s not an ounce of psychedelia on Black Drop’s Octopus, but we don’t mind at The Third Eye. We sometimes like to cover heavier stoner rock records, and this is a good one to add to your Bandcamp shopping list. Plenty of great hard rock bands come from France, specifically Toulouse, and Black Drop proves they’re another up-and-coming French band to watch.

Check out Octopus by Black Drop on Bandcamp here.

Support Black Drop on Bandcamp or find them on social media (Instagram, Facebook, YouTube).

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