Review by: Dan Beland (StonerRock.com)

I’ve had some Borgo Pass songs kicking around my hard drive for a while now and after a few sorta disinterested listens they never really did anything for me. I was just sorta impartial to them, couldn’t really care either way.. Furthermore I had added several songs from ‘Powered By Sludge’ to the K666 Radio rotation and whenever they came up in the rotation they kinda bothered me.. The vocals seemed a bit to grating, like in a heavy metal kinda way. And even a listen to this entire 11 track CD while working away at the computer didn’t grab my attention.. But… and that’s a big but!! Only when I actually concentrated on ‘Powered By Sludge’ with no distractions did I start to ‘get it’. Borgo Pass is somewhere in between Unida, Sea of Green and Alice in Chains with a lot of John Garcia-isms. While I still find that the vocals come across as overly metal, and sometimes annoyingly melodic they can also come across with that pure rock passion that John Garcia is famous for. One good thing about the vocals is that they’re not the main focus of the mix.. And speaking of the mixing I have to admit that this is one of the best productions I have ever encountered for a sludgy recording. While the vocals aren’t really what I personally consider to be ‘sludge’ the sound of the band definitely is. The guitar sound is immense with a really warm and full tone while not being overly fuzzy.. The bass guitar is actually more prominent than the guitar through most of the album and it shares the warmth of the guitar. What can I say, it sounds incredible! You can expect great sound quality, great production and great songwriting from this sludge-powered debut release of the utmost quality! While Borgo Pass isn’t really my thing I can still really dig ‘Powered by Sludge’. Fans of the Alice in Chains and Sea of Green commercial oriented stoner sound will definitely get some good grooves from this album.. If you just thrive off of the John Garcia passionate vocals approach then you should also find pleasure within all of these 11 tracks.. Or you can just take this review as a cue to download the MP3 of “Meat Wallet” from the StonerRock.com MP3 Jukebox. If you love “Meat Wallet” you will love the entire album!

Evolve... Don't Revolve.. Let the Stoner Rock (R)evolution Begin Borgo Pass – Powered By Sludge

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