Electricjezus - Смех (2019)
It's been four years since the last
solo album from the Russian duo of Electricjezus, but the enjoyable
power shown in that last release (Котлован) has, by
all signs, continued to strengthen in the intervening years. Opening
with a slow riff study in “Соки земли” (or “Growth of
the Soil”; Electricjezus continues to kindly provide translations
of their titles), the band (re-)establishes their guitar and drums
M.O. with panache, picking up energy and speed as they move into the
subsequent tracks.
It's in those follow-ups, like
“Приговор” (“Sentence”), where the sludgy potency of
the band is made explicit, with their handling of momentum steering
the swampy chords and weighty beats into feeling impressively sizable
for a two-man operation. The absence of a bass (guitarist Ruslan
employs a bass pick-up, instead) in no way keeps them from bringing
suitably dark and heavy tones to the agonized audio experience.
Special kudos to Ruslan's vocals, which are used infrequently, but
consistently sound as though they're being sourced from someone in
the middle of being crushed by a boulder. In a good way, of course.
And for a couple of the tracks breaking
the ten-minute mark, the music maintains a good pacing, moving along
without seeming too sluggish, in spite of the low-end, low-tempo,
low-life vibes they keep in play. And despite the sparse
instrumentation, the songs do a great job of catching you up in the
grooves, getting swept along without any doubt of a satisfying
experience. They've found what works, and trimmed off all the fat,
leaving an excellently crafted batch of weighty tunes to do their
job, and do it damn well. This is one of those to take in the first
time, let it sit and digest for a while, then dig right back into it
to figure out what you missed because you were too caught up in the
groove to savor all the details. Hats off to Electricjezus, once
again.
~ Gabriel
For Fans Of; Body Void,
Dead Existence, Hypnochron, O.D.R.A., Sleep
~
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