LOTHORIAN - Beyond the Astral Mind

I found out about Lothorian through Acid Cosmonaut Records, who released their 'Welldweller' EP almost exactly 3 years ago. I reviewed it. I liked it, I'm not going to say I absolutely loved it, but one thing stood out to me and that was the promise of this band. Their potential was enormous.

It was around that time that a youtube teaser video was circulating for a full-length album called 'Mørke' that never came to fruition. I don't know the full story behind the abortive effort but the band went through some line-up changes and one can only hope, various sexual preference and lifestyle changes along the way. I'd also like to imagine that the band has dealt with heavy personal issues such as balloon addiction and standing trial for "flying a kite whilst not sober" to get to this point.

This is the first we've heard from them since then, and it's also their first full-length album. So, what's is going to be then, eh? Do these Belgian droogies live up to their potential or do they fall like eggy weggs and go splatty wat on the paving?

I decided to share my first impressions of the album, unvarnished, unedited and written "live" as I listened for the first time ...

Witchcunt - Don't know how you can expect to get away with calling a song "Witchcunt" in today's shitty political atmosphere but I like it! Lothorian is already getting on my good side by showing some balls early on. Tone-setting screams and a horrific, evil riff. Nice. This is turning out to be an instrumental and that's alright. The way I remember it, Lothorian's Welldweller EP was split between instrumentals and vocals, one after the other, back and forth. Let's see if the trend continues... This is a fucking killer song, by the way. Very spookhouse atmosphere, like an over the top haunted house from some silly late-80s horror movie.

Blackhand - Starting out strong with some pounding bass drums and floor tom. Ah, there's some vocals. Different from the last time. Actually sung this time, no affectation. That's always a plus in my book.

As the Void Absorbs All Light - Another fast start with the drums. This guy's doing overtime here! I'll have to look up his name. Come to think of it so is the guitar with the almost, but not quite blackened tremelo picking. Bit darker, slower and heavier than black metal picking but in that same ball park. This is a damn good band, man. And, just as I suspected, another instrumental.Three songs in and we're really establishing a cinematic feel. Little more lively than say, Cult of Occult which feels Hammer-ish to me. This feels a little more like Monster Squad, The Burbs or The Gate because of the Draculan riffs and faster tempo drums. And yes, I know I just made up the word Draculan. Just try and stop me! And that word specifically refers to a cape-wearing Dracula.

Eternal Smoke Cloaks the Night - I'm gonna be severely disappointed if there aren't vocals in this song. Not because I don't like Lothorian's instrumentals (I'm starting to prefer them), but because it would shoot gaping holes in my sequencing theory. Right on cue. Little throatier this time than last. Another kick ass song with a solid, doomy riff and interesting drums. It makes such a huge difference when drums don't just sit there but actually do something. When I played drums, I wasn't that great, but I wouldn't just hold a backbeat, in my mind I was playing riffs of my own. I'd add little asides, not just as fills, but consistently so that they became part of the "beat", which was more than a "beat", it was a riff. In my mind anyway. This drummer seems to share a similar philosophy. This guy is awesome, an early candidate for drummer of the year. What's his name? I'm gonna look it up ... Jurgen. Yeah, this guy kicks ass, man. Again, this is a great band. No last names though. Fame is for the weak-minded.

March of Time - Low, slow start. Let's see if my theory gets shot down here. We're into the middle of the album now so if there was a time to change things up, this would be it. 2/3 of the way through and there hasn't been much development here. This is more of a moody interlude than the previous instrumentals. I'm starting to get the impression that the way they write instrumental and vocal songs is different. The instrumentals are more simplistic and monolithic. We'll see about that later ...

Forbanned - This is off to a killer start. Simplistic riff and pounding drums for that Conan / Witchsorrow feel. Two totally different bands but they both do similar moves. Vocals pop in to keep the sequencing streak alive. A streak that extends all the way back to 2013. Longest song on the record here at nearly 9 minutes and it may just hold up as thee standout cut. Also a bit of a Goya vibe. Aha! There's the drop out I was waiting for. No way you sustain that pace for 9 minutes and nowhere to build up from that fast start. They've just said fuck it and changed things up completely. Another killer part here. Fuck man, this record's gonna make my end of the year list ... Another change up and it's got a bit of a drunken swagger to it. And then revved back up to a crazy riff-thing. Damn skippy, that was another great tune.

Solitude - Well, that was the most logical place for the vocals to come in and they didn't. Again, another instrumental with a riff that's a little more caveman-ish than their vocal songs. For the instrumentals, does the guitarist write those at home and then bring them to the band later and the vocal tunes are jammed out and therefore more complicated? Oooh, curveball. There are vocals here after all. Interesting. This is another excellent tune. Just a doomy riff and heavy hitting drums. Whoa, real whirlwind going on here in the bridge. Hurricane winds blowing through this song. Now a real funeral doom / blastbeat tug of war at the end. Disgusting.

Soothsayer - Three songs in a row with vocals. Nice tempo change here in the bridge. And a doomy path leads the way back. Fucking awesome song. Once again the drummer is the real hero here. I may be a little biased as a former drummer, but still. Oh my fuck! Awesome tempo changes here! Alright, every song so far has been awesome, but this one is really getting my goat and sacrificing it to some subterranean fiend. This is it, this is the song I would play for someone who's never heard Lothorian before. Oh, that fucking riff! And they come out of it leaving you wanting more. Now that's what I call a killer fucking tune!

Dance of Death - And we end on the shortest song on the record. I'll be shocked if there's vocals here. Absolutely gobsmacked as my British friends might say. Actually, they'd probably throw the word cunt in there to spice things up because the British are cool that way with their vulgarity. Killer, dare I say iconic doom riff, may be a call back to the intro. I don't know, I'll have to go back and replay it, my memory's not THAT great. I've just been force-fed a table full of amazing doom riffs so you'll have to forgive me.

And it's over. Well, I'm not just satisfied here, I'm positively stuffed. That's a great record and yes, fans of Goya will find a lot to love and salivate over on 'Beyond the Astral Mind'. Like I said, Lothorian prove themselves here to be a great band, not just with the riffs but by keeping things moving, keeping it interesting the whole way throughout. Jurgen is my new hero.

This definitely has the potential to be an end-of-the-year candidate. The only 4-star tune was March of Time, all the rest were 5 star boner-makers. The rest was just one amazing riff after another.

Going back I noticed that "Witchcunt" was a little call-back to the opening song on their first EP, "Witchunt".

The best part is the album is available for #freeload on bandcamp!

GET IT HERE

Sardonis / Eternal Elysium - Ascending Circulation split (album review)

Cover artwork by Nat Damm

SardoniS really only came onto my radar when I was sent a copy of 'SardoniS II' in the mail.  I'd known about them for a while by that point and it was on my list of things to "eventually" pick up, but there was no more time wasted once it arrived.  I carefully extracted the disc and threw aside the slipcase in a devil-may-care fashion, throwing myself wholeheartedly into the album.  I liked it.  Great instrumental bands are something peculiar to doom in that they hold the listener's attention without the obvious and immediate hook of the vocal melody.  Think of bands like Bongripper, Giza, Iron Mtn, Jackal-Headed Guard of the Dead, It's Not Night: It's Space ... well, there are just so many.  It's only surprising because I don't typically like instrumentals.  Sure I like Metallica's "Call of Ktulu" and "Orion" just like everyone else but what I'm saying is, I don't normally go for non-vocal music.  But I go for SardoniS in a big way and after recently discovering Eternal Elysium (a band that's been around for over 20 years!) due to my recent review of their 'Highflyer' EP for The Sludgelord blog, I found this album and it was some sort of Lovecraftian dream come true.  Rarely do I find splits that not only do I know both bands, but both are trusted.  Wheelfall / A Very Old Ghost Behind the Farm comes to mind, as does the upcoming Wo Fat / Egypt split but it's a rare treat indeed.

'Ascending Circulation', was put together for the tour of Japan SardoniS did with Eternal Elysium and just as they did for the October shows, SardoniS takes the stage first with their first offering "The Ascending".

I know people who can't listen to music with lyrics in any other language than English.  They are lyrically fixated to a fault.  It means there's a whole world of music that they don't get to enjoy.  Oh well.  I'm not that way, I listen to the vocal melody rather than the lyrics, allowing certain lines and passages to get caught in the meat grinder that is my head naturally and organically.  One of the most interesting aspects of music is the way it is connected to language in the brain, the rhythms of the music mirroring the rhythms of the composer's mother tongue.  It's for this reason that Eternal Elysium offer some of the most unique and funky rhythms within the broad field of psychedelic stoner doom music.  The Japanese language is rhythmically interesting in that it is full of abrupt stops and starts, punctuated by melodic flourishes and rapid fire monotone, followed by sudden stops and starts, etc.  All composers have this same tendency to mirror linguistic rhythms, tones, etc. and SardoniS is no exception.  The native Belgians don't need a vocalist to speak in a language distinct from that of their tour and split companions from the far east.  For nine and a half minutes the duo that is SardoniS belches out swelling rhythms in a song that isn't all that interesting structurally, but never drags or loses the listener.

Eternal Elysium unleashes their raggedy funk on the Japanese / English "Unbound (Kai Hoh)".  The song has the same swaggering, shambling appeal as a homeless drunk has to an insatiable murderer, the temptation to give in to impulses cannot be ignored.  Thankfully, we aren't murderers, we're headbangers, and our naturally rambunctious compulsions are indeed set free on this one.  The next track, "Circulation (Jun Kan)" ended up on the aforementioned Highflyer EP which was released just three weeks after this split.  It's got a great riff and the memorable line, "the future is completely blank".  Apart from the atomic blast that is SardoniS' "To The Barn!", it's probably the most uptempo and immediately hooky song on this split.

Because of the audible background buzz, "The Spiral Conclusion" sounds like a home recording that was never intended to see release.  Indeed, it was recorded roughly a year before the other two songs on this disc and it, along with "To The Barn!", are CD only bonus tracks that weren't on the original 10" record or bandcamp download.  This nearly eight minute instrumental is the perfect illustration of what I mentioned earlier about the linguistic origins of music.  The song starts out almost as a traditional Japanese folk song with plucked strings in the classical style and builds slowly into something recognizably stoner rock.

To take nothing away from SardoniS, Eternal Elysium steal the show here with their infectious rhythms.

Highlights include: "Circulation" and "The Ascending"

Rating: 4/5


Tracklist:
1). SardoniS - The Ascending (9:28)
2). SardoniS - To The Barn (4:21)
3). Eternal Elysium [Kai Hoi] (8:04)
4). Eternal Elysium [Jun Kan] (6:25)
5). Eternal Elysium [The Spiral Conclusion] (7:40)
Total Run Time: 35:56

From: Belgium (SardoniS), Japan (Eternal Elysium)

Genre: Doom, Instrumental, Psychedelic, Stoner

Reminds me of: Monster Magnet

Release Date: October 4, 2012

Suggested listening activity for fellow non-stoners: The journey of the warrior's spirit begins in the body (SardoniS) and ends in the mind (Eternal Elysium) ...

Better Review:
The Sludgelord
The Sleeping Shaman
Robust Fellow
Metalmouth

Sardonis facebook
Eternal Elysium facebook

GET IT HERE

Lothorian - Welldweller (album review)

Album artwork by Niels C. (guitars/vocals)

Slow, monolithic, filthy.  'Welldweller' is a plunge down a rabbit hole inside an impossibly deep grave.  One can practically taste the caked on grime and mud in the fleshless hollows of skulls in the riffs and vocals, which combine to create sepulchral atmospheres, especially on the album's centerpiece "Doomsday Calling".

'Welldweller' finds a young band experimenting with many different styles, always pushing for extremity in the grimiest tones and riffs they can manage.  Instrumental opener "Witchunt" establishes the precedent, a slow doomy riff with layers of distortion which both sounds and feels like the tearing of flesh.

The title track is my favorite of the bunch.  It offers the cleanest vocals of the three lyrical tracks found herein.  However clean the vocals are still manipulated and distorted by the same effect used by Philadelphia based band Summer Love and used at various times by Electric Wizard and Jerry Cantrell, a very liquidy sounding flange.  The song features a very Sabbathian bridge.

"Doomsday Calling" is a fine slice of Electric Wizard worship.  The song wouldn't sound out of place on 'Come My Fanatics' or even 'Dopethrone'.  It's that heavy, the riffs are that monumental and yeah, it's that good.  "Shallow Ground" shows some nice fretwork and some excellent instincts.  These guys may be young but they know when to ramp it up, when to speed it up, when to take a step back and slow it down and where to take a pause.

'Welldweller' has been released by Acid Cosmonaut Records and this one makes it a perfect two for two for the newish label, their other release being the excellent 'Dust Storm Warning' by Italian desert stoners DSW (see my review).

As first impressions go Lothorian's first 'official' release shows the band finding their sound.  Lyrics are sparse, the band opts for a more instrumental approach for the most part with the album sequencing rotating instrumentals and vocals one for one.  At half an hour in length 'Welldweller' reads more like an introduction to the band than a fully realized album.  A preview of great things to come.  Lothorian constantly experiment with atmosphere making one wonder what the band might have next in store.  Longer compositions wouldn't seem to be out of the question and the overwhelming impression is that this band has an all-time classic album or two in them.  Given time and a bit more material, Lothorian could be one of thee go-to names in doom and sludge metal for years to come.

The band has a new lineup and are all set to record the follow-up album 'Mørke' shortly.  Expectations have risen, stay tuned.

Highlights include: "Welldweller" and "Doomsday Calling"

Rating: 4/5

Total Run Time: 29:59

Jurgen M. - Drums, Vocals
Thomas F. - Guitar
Niels C. - Guitar, Vocals
Roenjer O. - Bass
Thomas B. - Vocals

From: Belgium

Genre: Doom, Sludge, Stoner

Reminds me of: Alice in Chains, Electric Wizard, Weed Priest

Release Date: February 15, 2013

Suggested listening activity for fellow non-stoners: Lying in graves in the heavy rain, sink deep down and hold your breath.

Better Reviews:
Stoner Hive
Dr. Doom's Lair
Heavy Planet
Sludgelord
Temple of Perdition
Stonerobixxx
Welcome To The Void in Greek

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Atomic Vulture - Planet Emerald (album review)

This past August the stoner rock world was treated to a three song demo of some of the most spaced out and 'authentic' desert rock that one was likely to hear this side of Kyuss.  The band that produced these fine sounds was Belgian trio Atomic Vulture and in no time at all their opening track "Winter Blues" became a staple of the daily hour long commute to work mix.  It was an epic road trip with dynamics that moved along the scale from laid back to downright bloody seething.  The other two tracks on the demo, "Spiders" and "Tunnel Vision" absolutely shredded the pavement with a thousand ccs of doom and displayed a metric tonne of promise overall.  Half a year later, the instrumental group have returned to tell us where they've been without uttering so much as a word.  They've been to Planet Emerald, and it's a different place indeed.  A more organic world with a stronger gravitational pull.

Things open up with a very organic sounding subdued and jazzy vibe on "Space Rat", each successive sound introduced builds upon and grows out of the previous one until the pause-y shock of the middle part unleashes a torrent of the heavy.  At the center of it all is the deep, throbbing heartbeat provided by bassist Jelle Gelle.  His is the voice that leads the charge and allows drummer Jens Van Hollebeke to do more than simply keep time, and allows Pascal David's guitar to speak and sing in lieu of an actual vocalist.  The mood here is exploratory, three stoned astronauts collecting samples and meeting the natives on a new and unknown world.

By the time the band has run through the first full measure of "Missing Link" it is obvious that they have added bags of flour to their amps, thickening the guitar tone in no small measure.  The rumbling and chugging bass of Gelle stealing the show here as the band jump through a couple different parts each with different moods.  This is what happens when the trio explore the jungles of Planet Emerald.  Queue the scenario, up the tempo, this is what happens when the natives come running with spears, etc.  A solid groove workout and excellent use of dynamics to tell a story without words.

Ostensible title track "Emerald" gears things back down a notch from the heavier than thou "Missing Link" to the Trans Am on an empty desert highway stoner vibe felt throughout their previous effort 'Demo 2012'.  In keeping with the narrative theme, this is the triumphant getaway scene, with plundered goods and alien jungle space babes in tow.  A satisfying and headnodding conclusion to a short but enjoyable trip that reads like a Roger Corman picture and for that stoner rockers ought to be grateful.

Brand new Athens-based label D-Drop Recordings will have both "Planet Emerald" and "Demo 2012" out on CD in March of this year.  The demo CD will contain two numbers not on the bandcamp digital download version of the release, bringing it up to a total of five tracks from three.  You can hear both of these songs on the D-Drop youtube channel, the songs are called "Outer Universe" and "King Size Slim"

Highlights include: "Missing Link" and "Emerald"

Rating: 3.5/5
Total Run Time: 14:51

From: Bruges, Belgium

Genre: Stoner, Instrumental, Desert Rock

Reminds me of: DSW, 1000mods

Release Date: January 10, 2013

Suggested listening activity for fellow non-stoners: Through the vine choked thickets of palm fronds, one could see the gleaming prize at the heart of the spearmen-guarded temple