Album Review Hermano – ‘Clisson, France’

Stoner

Ripple Music

Released – February 6th, 2026

Here’s the next step of the Hermano legacy. Having attached a couple of tracks from their now legendary appearance at Hellfest in 2016 on last year’s ‘When The Moon Was High’, Ripple Music have got their weed-soaked mitts on the full performance and are in the process of producing a DVD of the gig along with this recording and vinyl.

Hermano are considered a stoner supergroup with John Garcia (Kyuss) on vocals, Mike Callahan (Disengage) on guitar, David Angstrom (Supafuzz) on guitar, Dandy Brown (producer) on bass and Chris Leathers (Supafuzz) on drums, who took over from Steve Earle in 2003. There was no pressure on these guys, so they did what they wanted when they wanted, and it was eight years since they last played together before the Hellfest gig. With only an hour’s rehearsal on the day of the gig, the set was recorded for posterity and released in its entirety here for the first time.

The sound of the band warming up breaks the silence before they open up on a huge Sabbathy riff, and off they go with ‘Left Side Bleeding’ before Garcia tells the crowd they’re ‘gonna fuck this place up for a little bit’, and they ease into the bluesy groove of ‘The Bottle’, then ‘Cowboys Suck’ rattles along as Leathers literally leathers his kit (sorry). They bring some heavy blues on ‘5 To 5’ before the steady groove of ‘Senor Moreno’s Plan’ gets kind of sexy. ‘My Boy’ is dedicated to Evan from Kentucky and comes on like The Groundhogs; imagine that British pub blues at a major European festival. The only recorded evidence of ‘Love’ is a particular highlight. Why they’ve never recorded this track is a mystery. Maybe one day, eh? One of the guitarists has a noodle for the intro to ‘Is This Ok?’ before they start to build on a huge slab of grungy blues. The wonderfully titled ‘Alone Jeffe’ kinda creeps along before another guitar noodle that leads into ‘Kentucky’, which is beautifully greasy and gets your hips moving. ‘Manager’s Special’ is a rabid punk rocker, then the final number, ‘Angry American’, is simple and a fine way to close that leaves you in no doubt what a fantastic band these guys are.

I’m not a fan of live albums, and I sincerely hope that this is truly live. The sound quality is awesome, and the mix is right up in your face. Hermano returned to Hellfest in 2025, and they’ve planned a tour for 2026. Plus, this set will be released on DVD as well as vinyl in early 2026. My advice is to get a copy because this is hot.

Track List –

Left Side Bleeding

The Bottle

Cowboys Suck

Senor Moreno’s Plan

5 To 5

My Boy

Love

Is This Ok?

Alone, Jeffe

Kentucky

Manager’s Special

Angry American