Slaves on Dope - Horse

Written by Ken Bowden on September 20, 2016

Canadian rockers, Slaves on Dope, are back with their September 9th release entitled, Horse, courtesy of Universal Music Group.  As some may recall, Slaves on Dope were signed by Ozzy Osbourne’s label, Divine Records in the the early 2000’s and toured with Ozzfest.  Slaves On Dope is comprised of Jason Rockman on vocals, Kevin Jardine on guitars, Rob Laurion on bass, and Peter Tzaferis on drums.

When the opportunity to review Horse arose I was pretty jazzed, Slaves on Dope just so happens to be one of the first concerts I saw as a young adult.  Not going to lie, I had lost touch with what the band had been working on, so it was exciting to see their name pop up with some new tunes.  Before reviewing Horse I did a bit of research and listened to the albums they’ve put out over the last decade or so (Metafour, Over the Influence, and a couple of EPs) and honestly, they were all subpar.  So once I came to terms with my disappointment with how Slaves on Dope have spent the last 15 years, I turned on Horse, and I smiled for a few minutes.  Horse is so much better than the last four albums Slaves on Dope released; it is infectious and thought provoking, but with a hint of brutality.  

Throughout the album, they display their ability to be catchy but still appeal to the fans of hard rock.  There are couple of tracks that stand out, “Codependency”, which guest stars Lee-La Burn from the Damn Truth, and the last song on the album “Disco Biscuit”.  There are some disappointments with Horse, one of which is “Disco Biscuit” gets you back into the album and it’s the last song, track organization is crucial, and Horse is lacking that a bit.  Another disappointment is the unclever drug references in song titles, after 20+ years, one would think they would mature and move away from that.  But otherwise, Horse is good, not better than Inches from the Mainline, but it is still good, good enough for me to give it a listen every now and again and for Slaves on Dope to catch my attention again.