Living up to their name these guys can be the doom metal equivalent to kraut rock and in fact employ some synth sounds that are taken from the annuls of kraut rock.As the band's second album it would be properly enjoyed to the fullest extent of the bong as a sound track to sailing out of your mind and over your couch in the late night hours. The riffs bubble out of the distortion like the liquid in a lava lamp. The first song is pretty drug droney until the ten minute mark the it gathers more muscle for a more burly steam roller of a riff. I think their strength is how they are able to keep you engaged with some kind of guitar melody and I will be the first to admit I am a tough audience for this sort of a thing as I am a singer and listen for voices. So if you are going to engage me with instrumentals your work is cut out for you.
"Astro Cide" starts off with a more relaxed proggy feels and then tenses up midway in and vocals come in. The are a husky bark that is not really a growl until the end of phrase or so. It speeds up into an almost black metal section at the end.The vocals to "Hex " are a more dramatic exclamation than what Kylesa used to do , but are in the same vein with pseudo occult poppycock for lyrics. It starts off as typical sludge and midway into the song things begin to get trippy as the more atmospheric jam centered elements of the song begin to take over.
The album ends with the 12 minute " Battle Hag". It takes them about four minutes to really get to the meat of the matter and lock into a big droning metal riff to give this the propulsion it needs. At the eight minute mark they start weaving in some guitar melodies and while this would go over well live at high volume this song is not something I can personally hear my self listening to on a regular basis. That doesn't take away from the fact that these guys are really good at what they do, so much so that I will give this album a 8.5
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