Unbelievable Lake : "‘I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream’"

If you have ever listened to a jam band and thought, I'm high enough to be into this, but I just wish this was heavier and darker than you are in luck. That has commonly been my complaint with jam bands is that they were just too bring and happy for me with enough balls. This album is not aggressive, but takes you into a more introspective place that borders on madness.  Belfast band's second LP is a 41-minute track that drones and takes you on an excursion into space. Since how I normally review and rate albums is in a song-to-song listen-through, I am breaking this one up into 10-minute increments so we might more easily digest what is going down here. The first four minutes drift easily with vocals that are more of a chant. This breaks down to a real minimalist simmer, and that is where it feels like this might end if it were tracked like a normal album. 

Six and a half minutes in, and things feel like they are more droning than doomy. While it's darker than jam bands, it is not as heavy as doom. Doom needs a mournful oppression. Nor are they as heavy as Swans, though sonically that is the direction they are trying to head. Upon hitting the ten-minute mark, a distorted chord is struck to cause more chaos. But overdrive alone is not metal. Not that I am in any way invested in this guy's being a metal. I just like to make sure my readers have reasonable and realistic expectations set when they sit down to listen to an album I've reviewed. A few minutes into this section, it is clear they are taking a more minimalist approach as things progress. The sudden flurries of guitar are enough to scare my cat. Then they wander off into a section Syd Barrett might be proud of. 

19 minutes, they begin to slowly ramp things up. This takes a simmering five and a half minutes to achieve, before the drums lock in with the guitar to bring things to a pulsing pound. Yes, it's heavier, but in a more post-rock manner than metal. After three minutes of taking you to pound town, they unfurl more of a progressive rock sound. At the thirty-minute mark, the drummer is now laying down a jazzy rock beat that is more Pink Floyd in its intent. Then, in the last ten minutes of the song, it turns into noisy chaos that reminds me of what the Stooges did at times.I will give this album an 8, as I appreciate the organic nature of how they achieved this journey into sound. This is a trance-inducing listen that will find you drifting off into its depths.This drops on Cursed Monk Records June 13th.   

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