Nebula are floating straight into the sun, blue-green smoke trails swirling. Bursting into the heavens brighter than all the stars put together, before raining down shards of white hot molten metal onto the bleached earth below....

Sorry. Let me start over.

Nebula are the one. I'm not so convinced by the new line circulating lately that "Rock is back." For one thing, I don't remember it going anywhere for too long, and there's always the old "been there, done that"/"seen it and heard it" school of thought. My Rock dollars have seen diminishing returns with each successive retread of a retread of etc. But not so with Nebula. They're this close to perfection (hands very close together).

This four-song Sun Creature (Man's Ruin) is the latest from Eddie Glass, Ruben Romano and Mark Abshire. All of whom spent considerable time with the once great Fu Manchu, so their Rock credentials are, excuse me, heavy. They continue to mine the same territory a la Black Sabbath, Blue Cheer, Stooges, etc., adding healthy doses of flange, phase, extended space jamming and what sounds like early video game noises. What sets them apart from everyone else is how perfect every piece of the puzzle fits together. For one person Glass is a great two- (four- or five-) guitar team, with each track dueling with the others like the MC5 at their best. Abshire's bass wanders around almost aimlessly, but always checks back in with the main riff when necessary. Roman bashes at the drums in perfect cro-mag fashion, and when the headband comes out, you know the drum solo is just around the corner! And it's all topped with Glass' valley dude vocals as the perfect filler between solos.

This EP is a perfect place to start your Nebula experience. "Smokin' Woman" is an ode to a sexy, smokin' woman, and who can't relate to that? "Sun Creature" is pot-fueled "X-Files" paranoia. "Rollin' My Way to Freedom" is just plain pot-fueled, and "Fly On" is eight-plus minutes of flying guitars and bongo drums. Interestingly, Glass says he prefers the term "acid rock" to their recent media tag of "stoner rock." Hmmm. Sun Creature was produced in part by Jack Endino, who's just finished work on their sure-to-be-stellar upcoming LP. Again, Nebula are the one.