IBLISS : "Bintang Fajar"

The second album from this Malaysian stoner doom act finds them attacking your ears with a similar fuzzed out feed back ridden sonic disdain. They jam out the instrumental opening track which could have been banged out by any number of bands. The title track is more melodic and seems to care about the finer points of song writing little more. I can only guess the vocals are being sung in their native tongue as they sit back in the wall of guitars and are hard to distinguish, though not very articulated. They do sing in English on the blues based "Sold Your Soul to the Devil". I think this more laid back approach is a smart move as it contrasts the sludged out rumble that perhaps owed a little too much to Electric Wizard earlier in the album.

"Flower Ov Evil" has a commanding pound, that casts enough creep over the proceedings to appeal to fans of doom. While it's a cool enough riff it drones on it for the duration of the song that does not offer enough dynamics for this to be an instrumental. Sure the guitar solos are great and all but still not enough to justify it being a song. Things get darker and heavier for "Living Like a Sinner" but is that going to be enough to make the song worthwhile?  The riff is broken up more like Black Sabbath, but the vocals take a more staccato punk like pattern. The chorus works pretty well for what they are doing. 

They close the album out with "Killing Spree" . This is another instrumental which does not show a great deal of purpose despite  the fact they do manage for the riffs to change up in a pretty jammy organic fashion for the first half of the song, and a great deal of song time is decorated with wandering f guitar solos, but not really enough melody, to justify the time this song is consuming. there is a few minutes of silence before they come back with what amounts to be a hidden track that is just lingering not from a bass. I will give this album a 7.5, not bad for what they are doing I think the strength of working of bluesy songs on "Sold Your Soul to the Devil" is a side they need to blend more into the other songs. Out September 8th on Regain Records.

November is Doom- Amon Acid- " Cosmogony"

 

The English based band is doom of a space rock variety owing more of their existence to Hawkwind than Black Sabbath. Though they are heavier and more ominous than most of the psyche bands who cross over into doom. This can be more fully felt on the second song "Hyperion" where the come down with even greater weight. They do not sober up enough to scale back the atmosphere. They use exotic Middle eastern flavored chord progression to unwinds serpentine riffs on songs like "Death on the Altar" , where the riffs winding out with sublime grace while still maintaining tension. The vocals have the needed effects on them and not the greatest displays of vocal prowess, but get the job done as the narrative for this journey 

"Demolition Wave" kind of takes you away in its throbbing drone, while enjoyable it is more of a sound than a song. The sonic depth they hit you with being so much to ingest, it is still a very fun trip for your ears to be on. There is even more of a drone on "Nag Hammandi" which is somewhat eerie in the sounds that they indulge you with. The vocals are more of a chant The hypnotic lull of the one riff they mesmerize you with has little dynamic range but is a cool sound to employ. "Mandragoras" right of the jump dances with a more intoxicating groove, that is easier to belly dance to than headbang. Then they locked into a more Electric Wizard like stoner rumble. 

"Demon Rider" finds them trudges the distortion in more familiar fuzzed out valleys. The guitar riffs use wandering melodies to jam this one out. The fuzz is heavy and bulldozing with volume and power, as the keep it's groove going. They back off into more of a strum for "Ethereal Mother" . I can appreciate this for the overall dynamic shift of the album, as a song on its own accord perhaps not the most impressive. They cover more ground in terms of dynamics on the last song.  It feels like a good balance of the heavier side of what they do and the trippy vibes that give this album its own identity. I will give this album a 9.5, as it sounds great and works really well to build immersive moods. This is being released on Regain Records. 

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