Italian psych-progsters are back with a renewed thunder. This is their tenth album so they know what they are doing. It moves in a manner that is not the doom they self-identify as until it does slow into a more sludged-out trudge. The commanding vocals are more sung than howled, though often splitting the difference between the two. It is a ten-and-a-half-minute opening track with enough groove to feel like it's being jammed out to excess. At two songs in it feels like it is a heavier album for sure. The vocals are more shouted in the background as the fuzzed-out mix gets an odd turn of ambiance. The guitars are not the focal point but another texture as the bass drives it forward. At the song's halfway point the drugs begin to take a turn. If Lemmy had taken Hawkwind in the direction he went with Motorhead the results might have been similar.
Things slow down to a more deliberate stomp on "Spidher". It moves in another sludge-dripping groove. One of the more straightforward rocking moments I've heard from them in some time. At almost eleven minutes long'Mausoleum" is the album's most sprawling song. This droning indulgence finds the song not really kicking in until the two-minute mark. The vocals have the prophet of doom feel that Uncle Al from Ministry delivers these days. Once again when the drugs kick in the song shifts into an even trippier direction than the last time they followed this formula.
"Leeched" feels like it could either be from "Filth Pig" or a Melvins cover, both work for me. Less apocalyptic than that era of Ministry so I am going to go with the Melvins. The last song finds them wandering off in a direction that has more in common with older Cure. I wish they had worked more of this kind of thing into the other songs. Vocally they are not as impassioned as Robert Smith, but it works well enough from the more Pink Floyd vibes they drift into. I will give this album a 9 , it continues to find the band excelling at what they do.
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