Circling 'Round Again...

Vintage Cucumber - Ufo Freunde EP (2015)

Our last visit from Vintage Cucumber came in the form of their split with The Holy Cosmos back in March, but now they're back with a solo EP packing a half-hour and change, and their krauty spin on spacy psych rock is in fine form once again.  Sparkling guitar tones and deep-groove bass provide the more fluid side of the songs, while the drummer gets to show off a nice range of style in heating up and cooling down the songs as needed.  

While the band can rip right ahead on a high-speed tear, they've also got some cool style with the slower and more expansive stuff ("Mondfinger" is the go-to track for that on this EP, though the pressure-cooker of "Super Fabel" is just as satisfying).  The variety brought to the table by Vintage Cucumber for this EP gives it some strong replay value, particularly with the challenge of trying to keep from being pulled away into the wide-sky brain-space the band conjures up so well.  All in all, excellent stuff.
~ Gabriel

For Fans Of;    Axis/Orbit, Gallileous, Mondo Drag, Snake Thursday, Telstar Sound Drone

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Vintage Cucumber - Grüß mir die Berge (320 kbps)

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To the Depths of Depression

My Life's Despair ~ Invoked with Passion and Pain (2015)

We don't get sent a ton of gothic doom metal around here, and even less is worth reviewing. That's why I when I gave the new album from My Life's Despair a listen, it was a rather pleasant surprise. Being just a two man project from southern California, they duo take elements from black and death metal, then intertwine it seamlessly into what you'd normally consider gothic doom. The album's forth track is a prime example, after a keyboard intro some spoken vocals and a guitar part drops in before things slow down again. Once that happens it takes a few moments for a thick guitar track starts in, and the raw, black metal styled vocals make their first appearance. After a short interlude the screamed vocals are given some contrast with a pristine female vocal track. While this is going on, the arrangement is filled with ripping guitar sections and some crashing blast beats. Around the half way point the song takes another turn, slowing down with the piano reemerging and taking over the spot light until the vocals come back in. That carries the song through the last couple minutes of its duration. If you have fond memories of the 90's gothic doom scene, My Life's Despair is worth looking into for nostalgia's sake if nothing else. You can pick up your digital versions through iTunes, or physical copies here.
~Skip

For Fans Of; My Dying Bride, Draconian, Tiamat

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Bold New Day...

Arrakis - Ammu Dia (2015)

Hailing from the smokier regions of Greece, this three-piece is making with their first LP after figuring things out on a couple of demos and an EP.  Sprawling out to an hour's worth of heavy psych treats, Arrakis dig into deep grooves and twisting trips with strong performances from each of the members.  Nimble percussion (with some really nice use of the cymbals), rough'n'fuzzy guitar that spreads out colorful arrangements, and a bass to practically bounce you out of your seat come together strongly, mixing together bright sunbursts and doomy somberness with clever ideas and some kicking viciousness when they need it.
It's a great performance, and a hell of a first album.  There's some great variety to be found in Arrakis' deep dives, leisurely cruises, and frenzied freak-outs, though listeners who've just gotta have some vocals to connect them to the songs will sadly be left out in the cold.  One of the better heavy psych records to emerge so far in 2015, I wouldn't be surprised at all to find this on a number of year-end top pick lists.  Do yourself a favor and grab a copy before then if you like heavy psych rock or wild stoner metal.
~ Gabriel

For Fans Of;    Blacksmoker, DopeRider, Gallileous, Tuber, Wizard Cult

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Arrakis - Ammu Dia (320 kbps)

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Wrecks And Strays...

AHAB - The Boats Of The Glen Carrig (2015)

The much-anticipated new release from the quartet of AHAB has finally landed, holding five tracks (only one under ten minutes) in its cargo.  From the start (well, after a little calm to build atmosphere), the band shows a thunderous power, shot through with veins of colder menace, and the shifting from one to the other and back again leads to some interesting effects.  As usual with this crew, the setting is nautical, which they emphasize with waves of feedback, curling melodies, and percussion that crests and break against the rest of the strident elements.  The band pulls together an impressively unified front, letting each member get some spot-light, but generally keeping things near-equally divided in the work-load.

The wailing strains of the guitar against harder crunch made for some of the most hair-raising moments in the album's run for me, but the whole thing has a professional standard to which it holds itself.  If you're not already one of the many who've ordered a copy, it makes for a nice entry point to the band's catalog, and for those who've enjoyed AHAB's previous releases, there's little here to make you regret sticking with them.
~ Gabriel

For Fans Of;    Attalla, Crowskin, Hooded Menace, Ramesses, Sea Bastard

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Staves And Suffering...

Dimaension X - Plagues Of Ægyptus (2015)

To call this album atmospheric would be an understatement.  Built on the ten Biblical plagues of Egypt as a conceptual base, the hour-long invocation layers elements of tribal music, some death metal, drone, and more over the doom metal foundation, crafting something distinctive and effective at causing goosebumps to crawl over your skin.  Lice, frogs, flies, and all the rest of the curses are given their dues with escalating pressure and tension, driven by recitations from the corresponding passages.  The biggest problem in the album is that "Death of the Firstborn" finishes without much fanfare or crescendo, making it underwhelming after the enjoyable journey through the preceding songs.  That aside, there's a lot of good work at play in the album, and its release under Creative Commons might garner forgiveness from some listeners.  So if you've been looking for some real 'wrath of God' type music lately, go on and give this a try.
~ Gabriel

For Fans Of;    Ak'chamel, Demon Hunter, Flight of the Seraphim, Isis, Samael

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Dimaension X - Darkness (320 kbps)

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Traveling Rough Terrain...

Decasia - Decasia EP (2015)

This EP marks the first full release from France's trio of Decasia, and through the 30+ minutes of heavy, jammy, and heated grooves, the band gets cracking with memorably cool style.  Playing with a good amount of familiarity, but with enough roughness to keep their desert/stoner style sounding authentic, the group rides through the songs at high and low speeds, knotting together cool stretches of twisting highway music while showing the ways in which they might grow on future releases.  They infuse the old combo of bass/drums/guitar & vocals with some fire of their own, and the results are ideal for playing at high volume to while away the last days of summer.  There's a little bit of Red Hot Chili Peppers flavor to the last track, "Dive", but the ratio of that to the rougher stuff is at the right level to keep it enjoyable.  All in all, definitely one for fans of desert and stoner rock to load into their ears and stay tuned for more.
~ Gabriel

For Fans Of;    Fuzz Evil, The Heavy Co., The Hunted Crows, Monobrow, Queen Chief

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Decasia - Sherpa (320 kbps)

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