'Exploding in a flurry of sludge heavy guitar riffs and throaty vocals, Desert Monkey make the kind of rock music that makes you sit up and take notice from the start. Somewhere between Black Sabbath, Queens Of The Stone Age, Fu Manchu and Dinosaur Jr, this is melodic rock with echoes of psychedelia and 70s metal thrown in for good measure.
KNOWN TO BE CYNICS, blasts forth with sudden intensity with guitar riffs that sound like they're trying to rip their way out of your speakers and an energy that throws you to the back of the room. On, TWO, the psychedelic opening soon gives way to more heavy riffing and powerful rock action - the throaty vocals hitting that fine line between melodicism and metal hollering, like Lemmy mixed with Iggy and a bit of Kurt Cobain filtered through.
By the time you get to, WATER DAMAGE, the sound does start to get a bit over familiar as the pounding riffs give you a distinct sense of deja vu and the melodies start to fade into one. Still retaining the unrelentless energy and driving passion though, Desert Monkey nevertheless manage to win you over with sheer determination and vigour.
RUN ALONG, comes at you with a gentler approach as reverb heavy guitars ring out and the vocals are sung in deep throated melodicism with definite echoes of Kyuss or early Soundgarden ringing through. In a similar vein, VOLUME PHRASING mixes the light and the heavy, as the song shifts between stoned melodics and determined heaviosity with relative ease, guitar solos wailing out and drums pounded to within an inch of their life.
Desert Monkey make the kind of sound that makes you believe in the power of straight forward rock music again, energetic songs that sweat passion and belief. WATER DAMAGE contains five songs that what they may lack in originality more than make up for with brutal power and conviction.'

www.ukmusicsearch.co.uk review of 'Water Damage' by Mike Bond