I’m not going to pretend the cover art’s especially good. It’s the worst kind of psychedelic collage, a wash of gauzed-out, saturated to the max colours. But you know what? We can let it pass. Move on.
Titles like ‘Shroom Doom’ tie in with the cover’s themes and give a fair indication of what to expect. The riffs are classic rock with harmonious lead parts, but slowed down and fattened out with fuzz. The vocals are warped, distorted, treated and tripped out. Great, lumbering bass grinds slow, low and heavy. Sabbathesque slabs of sound wrapped in smoky mysticism conjure Sabbath-esque vibes.
‘Fools Gold’ demonstrates an unexpected emotional depth and a twisted grace rising from the thunderous swamp, while the album’s 11-minute centrepiece ‘The Plague’ is a slow-burning beast of a song. The title track, by far the most straight-ahead and uptempo of the five, is built around a simple, repetitive, minor-chord riff that’s made for head-banging.
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It all adds up to a solid album that combines classic and contemporary elements to forge a true rock behemoth.
Holy Serpent Online
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