Keeping The Light On...

Clouds Taste Satanic - Dawn of the Satanic Age (2016)

With their third album, the NY-based crew of Clouds Taste Satanic has changed up their cover art style a bit, leaving behind the Renaissance-evoking paintings of religious imagery for a more psychedelic landscape, and altering their music in comparable fashion. Right from the start, opening track “Enthroned” pulls out a more rock-styled lead riff than the band's seemed inclined to use on previous outings, and while they retain a doomy weight to the tones, sustain, and pacing, the exploratory genre-blurring leads them to some intriguingly unconventional places. In other spots, it's faint strains of the band's past post-rock playing that's twisting the bass and drums, grungy tones coating the guitar strings in spots, touches of straight-forward heavy metal swinging heads elsewhere, and proggy jangles of complex riffage crossing various bridges.

It all sounds like the output of a band that's continuing to challenge itself in the process of writing their songs, and keeping themselves nice and fresh by doing so. Going from one CTS album to the next, there's recognizable lineage, but no sense that they're getting bogged down or feeling uninspired. There's liveliness, good grooves, and a sense of storytelling without vocals, and I can't wait to hear what new directions the band will explore on their follow-up. And while there's fun in comparing the albums to each other, CTS have also made an album which stands strongly on its own, especially with the stylish closing of “Demon Among the Stars”. If this is your first encounter with the band, check it out already; if you've heard their earlier albums, there's still surprises in store for you.

~ Gabriel

For Fans Of; Earthling, Merlin, Sea Bastard, Sumokem, Wizard Smoke

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Clouds Taste Satanic - Just Another Animal (320 kbps)

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Filled To Bursting...

Clouds Taste Satanic - Your Doom Has Come (2015)

With their second album, Clouds Taste Satanic continue their established fondness for wrapping big doom tracks up in a classy presentation.  Unlike To Sleep Beyond The Earth, this time they're having a go at breaking the music down into more than one song per side, with six pieces coming together to provide as much as can be squeezed onto a single LP before the sound quality begins to suffer.  The slow procession begins with "Ten Kings", setting a foundation of thumping riffs and reverb before shifting into more violent mannerisms.  There's a more staunchly metal bite to the songs, with the post-rocky pieces of the first album switched to a more sinister tone this time around, though the eagerness shown by the band in exploring ways to keep the song-writing fresh hasn't diminished one bit.  Whether slogging through a slow'n'low riff section or bashing out some less-tethered frenzies, CTS show a good sense of how far they can stretch a piece before it starts to fracture and cut into the next portion.
As much as the band has changed their approach from the first album, there's an appreciable sense of how lessons learned from its construction influenced this one; the care for filling each side not just with track after track, but to give it a satisfying experience to itself, for instance, with the rising momentum of the A-side crashing into "Beast From The Sea" for the climax, and "Out of the Abyss" climbing inexorably back up to those heights and beyond until "Sudden...Fallen" returns to destruction.  The numerous bridge segments of CTS' debut have their own updated incarnations, with condensed versions of their changing choruses providing punchy palate-adjustment, and each of the musicians is on-point with their performances, precise and powerful.
From the evidence of Your Doom Has Come, Clouds Taste Satanic have far less interest in simply getting by than in challenging themselves to always improve, and I fully expect that whatever comes next will have just as much in the way of new angles.  You'll have to wait a while to hear it for yourself, as the release is scheduled for the 1st of September, so mark it on your calendar and set aside some cash to prepare.
~ Gabriel

 For Fans Of;    The Wounded Kings, The Electric Knives, Nelly Olsen, Bell Witch, Monolord

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Clouds Taste Satanic - Beast from the Sea (320 kbps)

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As The World Burns...

Clouds Taste Satanic - To Sleep Beyond The Earth (2014)

With a title that manages to name-drop two titans of king-sized doom while also being an evocative phrase in its own right, To Sleep Beyond The Earth is the first offering from Clouds Taste Satanic.  Setting aside the Flaming Lips inspiration behind the band's name to focus on the content of the album, you'll find that it follows staunchly in the blueprinting established by the vinyl/cassette issuings of Dopesmoker; one colossal song, split into pieces of a digestible size.  Parts I & II (a single track) begin things, while the pairing of III & IV wraps it up, with each of the two adding up to ~22 minutes of sound, ideal for the non-CD releases of this mammoth.

Beginning with the hum of imminent danger, slow-crashing waves of bass, guitar, and a sonorous gong soon surface, building up layers of feedback as the movement shifts into action.  If you're familiar with their named influences, you can probably guess where it goes from there.  For those who aren't, the answer is that they delve into exploring the limits of a riff, guided by massive resonance and carefully-controlled levels of feedback.   As they do so, Clouds Taste Satanic prove that they've got the chops to put this album right behind the works of their idols.  Since this is their first album, that gives you some idea of how much potential this group has in their future; it's also a potent warning that if you're even thinking of going to see this band live, you'll need some serious ear protection.

As relatively easy as it would be for a band looking to pay homage to Dopesmoker to crank up the feedback and volume in an effort to liquify people's eardrums, Clouds Taste Satanic deserve some serious recognition for the hard work they put into giving To Sleep Beyond The Earth engaging sections highlighting the melody behind the rumbling fuzz.   A lot of care went into the crafting of this music, and while it's not as languorous as The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull, there are certainly times when the gentle touch on the guitar's strings brings that piece of Earth to mind.  Something that can often detract from a group's first release is the production, but all the mixing and levels found here are perfectly suited to the material, earning the band still more points.  Get ready for this one to become a monster of legend, and get yourself a copy as soon as you can.

~ Gabriel

For Fans Of; Sleep, Earth, Ladybird, Trees, Bongripper

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Clouds Taste Satanic - To Sleep Beyond The Earth (Parts I & II) (320 kbps)

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