MANGOG – Mangog Awakens

Argonauta Records – CD/DD

PREORDER – SAVE 20% – Release date: Jan 9th, 2017

 

Coming together from the remnants of the bands REVELATION and AGAINST NATURE, MANGOG represents the latest in what makes ‘doom’ what it is; riffs that punch you in the chest, bass that will rattle your ribcage and time sig’s that seem to twist you around as you roll along with them through this 9-song debut.

Citing Black Sabbath / The Obsessed / Trouble as their influences, it is no surprise that the feel is dark and foreboding. The clock ticking as this opus begins belies the awakening referenced in the album title and five seconds later, the first power chords hits right between the eyes as “Time Is A Prison” makes its way through your veins with a power and rumble that grabs you and doesn’t let go. Clocking in at just over seven minutes, it is quite the introduction to these four guys that stay their mission as using riffs to turn the air solid and taking long walks on a post-apocalyptic beach with a zombie-bride. By the time you get to the first extended guitar solo, you feel it enveloping. Not wasting a second between, “Meld” comes in faster and shakes you awake with the trifecta of cymbal/bass guitar that leads you through the path they are clearing for the first four measures before Myke Wells’ vocal rises to remind you that is is ‘your thirst to my thirst, your mind to my mind’ and there is no turning back.

 

 

Full of twists and turns and tales of walking those decimated beaches ‘drunk with fear’, Mangog delivers what promises to be a disc that does not come out of your player anytime soon once you put it in. One of the standout tracks on this is “Daydreams Within Nightmares”, chock full of those time signatures that make it seem like the ‘fills’ are the body of the rhythm line. Closing out this 45 minute opus with “Eyes Wide Shut” demonstrates the roots of mist-filled shadows that gives MANGOG the doom-tag they have assigned themselves. Breathe deep before you hit ‘play’ the first time and keep your eyes open as you never know what is behind you as you wonder if ‘today is a good day to die’.

 

Words by Ric “Sui-Syko” Dorr