Tracklist:
Attack of the Mammoth (7:52)
Warning (6:44)
War Pipe / Rite of the Calumet (7:38)
Ogama (8:43)
Tisayac (9:34)
Mescalito/Meeting of the Half Moon (7:02)
Nantucket (10:05)
Emerald [digital-only bonus track] (4:05)
Band Members: Present:
Jacob Sawrie – Vox/Rhythm
Drew Skarda – Percussion
Tyler Weaver – Lead
Dustin Weddle – Bass
Past:
Josh Ingram (RIP) – Lead
Alan Wells – Bass
To say the least, 2017 has been a huge year for heavy music. The year has granted us several new releases, most notably Mastodon’s Emperor of Sand. However, the music world often functions like archaeology – The deeper you dig, the more treasures you will find such as the gargantuan slab of Doom that is Sumokem’s “The Guardian of Yosemite”.
When I say gargantuan, I mean it. Each tune on this release is not only long, but feels like it has been custom-tailored to be as gigantic as possible, from the performance to the production to the composition. Every riff hits like a Warhammer to the temple and it wouldn’t feel right any other way. Each member is extremely in tune with one another and they really feel like a single living and breathing organism.
Sumokem’s Special Vinyl Release Date – Friday, January 12th, 2018
Special credit, though, goes to their lead guitarist. Every member is excellent at their instrument, but the guitar goes above and beyond to ensure that each and every solo is searing and quick, keeping the listener’s attention while still progressing the song further and further down into heavier and heavier territory as the album goes on.
It’s unbelievable just how heavy this album can be. It opens like a freight train, but by the time the epic-length dirge and album high point “Nantucket” begins, you can only be floored by how well Sumokem brings music back to its primordial roots. There is no feeling greater than finding a band that is both classic and novel – one that both pushes the boundaries of music while reminding us why we love it in the first place, and with its ultra-heavy prehistoric jams, Sumokem’s “The Guardian of Yosemite” has given us just that.
Argonauta Records – Release Date: Digital album releases February 27, 2017 /
Physical Album Ships around March 10, 2017
Ship: Void Cruiser mod.1.0 (Interstellar heavy metal exploration vessel)
Destination: Unknown
Last known location: The Andromeda galaxy
CREW – T-Hug: Low Frequency Engine, Ambience Generator
V-Salo: Soundscape Systems
T-Bag: Battering Apparatus
S-Salo: Fuzz Machinery, Communications
Post: Void Cruiser has always been there. Only now the crew have awakened from their cryogenic sleep and they are on a holy quest. A quest for The Massive Resonance. This is how we begin…
And so is how my introduction to VOID CRUISER began. I discovered that this is the third release, the first being 2013’s EP ‘Motherload’ followed in 2015 with the full length “Overstaying My Welcome” and now in 2017 we are gifted with “Wayfarer,” a seven song collection of pure stoner-metal bliss; fuzzed out bass lines, staggered tempo’s and fills running amok with searing, soaring guitar solos that perpetuate every minute that has no other voice voiced communications. Grab your vaporizer/pipe/bong/etc. as we travel along with this mod 1.0 vessel.
‘A Day In Which No Man Was Born’ serves as the lift-off and slowly takes you through the entry of the edge of this sector as the background becomes the majesty that is the interwoven expansive net that is propelling you into the unknown ahead with no apprehension. Instead anticipation as the power chord driven final section of this track shifts as you can almost feel the turning of this vessel which effortlessly flows to the next track ‘I Didn’t Lie, But Know Now I Should Have.’ The band swings right into a blues-tempo’d, doom-slow and low tale of Salo speaking of the “voice” inside of him, letting us see through his eyes what is transpiring within and why he knows why he should have. As the last note rings out, we suddenly hear footsteps and a quick staccato snare pulls us into ‘As We Speak’ where we are told that we will ‘hear with your eyes and see with your ears’ as if he could reach you. Electronic sputters lead us right into the power chord beginning of ‘Madonnas And whores’ where Salo tells us that when he was all alone, in his own narcissistic way, all he could feel was love for everything. Now that he is willing in his own altruistic way, all he can feel is just jealousy as he further exposes the events of the ‘looking for comfort’ and there is no way it’s gonna fall. At the four minute mark, we begin the turnaround portion of this leg of the journey with the tastiest guitar section this record has offered up so far and filled the void around this spinning vessel perfectly carrying you though the ectoplasmic expansion that surrounds you outside until you are told that the ship has been taken over.
‘Seven Years Late’ is a tale of Salo speaking of ‘your heart of gold, my heart of steel’ and his careening vocal carries you further long. telling of a dream he had, saw his grave, seven years late. Faster footsteps, a coughing man and ‘All Over Nowhere’ begins that Salo is ‘The man that helped you, he’s the man that stabbed your back…’ and then asked if ‘you’re having a good time baby’ with the same monotone sneer you would expect from somebody that tells you he knows for sure that you ‘go around.’ Perfectly accentuated at the end with the same running footsteps at the beginning before final track ‘Maailmann Kallien Kaupunki’ which per a translator means ‘The most expensive House’ which leads me to imagine some spectral equivalent of The House of Heaven or some such. Speaking no Finnish, I can not be positive, but the music of this 10-minute soliloquy gave me a feeling of bliss that carried to the very end as the very last faded out through a backdrop of white noise that seemed endless until it was no more…
Compared to the previous releases, VOID CRUISER have come a long way with “Wayfarer” and have grown not only as a unit, but as a concept and they have executed the concept quite well here. If given the opportunity, I encourage you, the reader, to find their tour schedule and get out and see how this outstanding studio effort is translated to a live forum. We can not recommend this album enough…
Kingnomad is a band out of northern Sweden, and they don’t really mention their actual hometown on any of their biographical information, only that they’re from a small village. I like that, a little mystery right off the bat, especially for a band with supposed occult leanings. I use the word “supposed” because it’s clear from this foursome’s bio that they’re a bunch of down-to-earth dudes in it for the ha-ha’s, not hardcore Satanists intent on destroying the universe by hurling curses from Ancient Grimoire of black magic. That’s fine and dandy, though I’m not sure how many of you caught the recent blog post from the fabulous Invisible Oranges author Joseph Shafer, entitled “Ten Metal Clichés We Can Do Without.” I’m going to doing something that I’ve never done, and link it here for posterity, because it really spoke to me: http://www.invisibleoranges.com/ten-metal-cliches-we-can-do-without/
Give it a read. Go ahead. You might hate the article, and you might hate me for agreeing with the vast majority of what the author has to say. Why do I bring this up within the context of this review? Well, that’s kind of my thing, isn’t it? No album or band exists within a bubble or a vacuum, and I firmly believe that context and relevancy are extremely important. I’m also a firm believer in the Zeitgeist, the “spirit of the age”, and if an album doesn’t in some way, shape or form speak to that spirit, then it’s simply not for me.
I may constantly chastise myself for my tangential reviews, though there’s a method to my madness. I have two diatribes to launch into for this review, and luckily, they flow pretty well from one to the other.
Firstly, did you read the Invisible Oranges article? If you’ve read some of my reviews, you’ll probably know by now that I’m highly critical of quite a number of these things listed. I remember seeing the title of this article and thinking “Man, they had better have Satan as the number one cliché or I’m going to be extremely disappointed in humanity.” Thank you, Invisible Oranges, for delivering the goods – I’ve had enough disappointments with the whole of humanity as of late.
Kingnomad manage to encapsulate and incorporate three of the items on the cliché list: Black Sabbath worship, Satan, and Cthulhu. I’d like to emphasize that the aforementioned article calls for moderation and thoughtfulness, a “less is more” approach rather than an outright abolition of some of metal’s most traditionally treasured golden calves and sacred cows. I could use plenty of examples from occultism and esoteric traditions to illustrate the validity of this argument, though I’ll instead drudge up one from contemporary popular culture. In the Star Wars mythos, one of the main ideological differences between the Jedi and the Sith is their interpretation of the Force, beyond the light and dark sides of it. The Jedi believe that the Force is like a candle, and that a bright burning flame can be used to light many more candles, while the Sith believe that the Force is more like venom, and to spread it out too thinly is to dilute its potency. When it comes to metal, I’d have to agree with the Sith on this one. The reason that lyrical subject matters that are traditionally held as taboo carry so much weight and power is their relative scarcity. It’s the fact that they’re not the norm that makes them so alluring. The ritualistic and artistic deconstruction of societal barriers releases a wave of liberating cultural energy that can be harnessed into transformative effects. That’s the basis for a whole system of esoteric practice that’s intrinsically linked to metal, The Left Hand Path (let’s save that particular can of worms for another review, though it is worth mentioning here). However, as these themes become overused and ubiquitous, they lose their ability to shock and awe; their potency is diluted. They cease to be the language of counterculture, heterodoxy and ultimately liberation, and instead become the manifestation of a mindless adherence to a tired and cliched orthodox blueprint. Anything that holds the potential for liberation also carries with it the threat of oppression when it transitions from the realms of the fantastic and abnormal into just another lame-and-tame inevitability of the mundane world.
In that regard, Kingnomad are not one of the more egregious offenders, as their references to Lovecraft and Lucifer His Dark Majesty are used sparingly and light-heartedly. The band openly admits that they’re in it for the fun, and that’s just fine with me. Ghost set the stage for the whole “Scooby Doom” school of metal, and it looks like the good times are here to roll. As far as the Black Sabbath worship, well…. if you’re playing metal and feel like you’re not indebted and influenced by The Sabs, then you’re doing it wrong. I’ve attempted to defy the unquestioned supremacy of Sabbath for many years now, to cast doubt on their reign in hopes of finding other worthy usurpers to the crown who’ve lurked in their shadows, and I’ve come to the conclusion that Black Sabbath are kings, lords and masters wherever The Heavy is concerned. This you can trust. Plenty of their contemporary proto-metal protégées from the late 60’s and early 70’s left their marks and signposts, though none blazed a trail the way that Ozzy and crew did from the moment that the iconic tri-tone of their title track was committed to tape.
On Mapping The Inner Void, Kingnomad mine the Sabbath treasure troves for what that they’re worth, though their incorporation of the more psychedelic elements of bands like Witch and Mammatus sets them in a place firmly above a mere Sabbath clone. They’ve got more of that indie rock vibe that started creeping in from the neo-psych movement that Dead Meadow brought to the forefront of the stoner scene. They’re able to use some of those fuzzy, major key riffs that Dead Meadow pulled off with such poise on their debut and also dive into some of the more nuanced, layered sounds that made Feathers such a breakthrough album. They’re also going for some of the pop hooks and harmonized vocals that turned Ghost and Uncle Acid And The Deadbeats songs into such mesmerizing ear candy.
Herein lies my second tangent, which is the continued resistance to the melding of the metal and indie worlds. I bring this up because Kingnomad wisely call themselves “doom rock”, rather than doom metal. This may seem like a small distinction, though it’s a very important detail to some. Metal carries with it a sense of tradition that lends itself to puritanism, while rock is more open ended. I’m a pragmatist who also doesn’t like to falsely advertise; if you’re a traditionalist or purist who is turned off by the bands that I’ve name dropped above, then this album very well may not be for you. I personally have never been turned off by indie rock getting its proverbial peanut butter mixed in with metal’s chocolate. I’m a steadfast believer in one of the central themes of the Russian dramatist Anton Chehkov’s continual literary themes: that art needs new forms.
With two tangents down, it’s time to get this review back on track and talk about the music itself. Kingnomad write slow to mid-paced fuzz-fests characterized by an overall ethereal vibe. All the songs have a delightful other-worldliness, from the juxtaposition of super saturated and squeaky clean guitar tones, to the wispy vocal delivery and the smidgens of choice samples from horror movies that the band laces into their songs. There’s some cool synth sounds too, which I’m always a sucker for. There are seven songs total; the entire album clocks in at just under 40 minutes, so it’s the perfect length for vinyl, and it won’t test either your attention span or your patience. All the songs are good, distinctive and memorable, making for a inclusive and cohesive listening experience that deepens with repeat listens. I don’t really have a favorite song, though ‘Nameless Cult’ certainly burrowed its way through the canals of my inner ear and lodged itself unwittingly into my memory with its haunting chords and major key dalliances. Similarly, the closing track, and the longest of the album, ‘The Waiting Game’ is also a highlight in its epic take on heavy psych rock freak-outs. Even the shortest track, the instrumental interlude ‘Whispers From R’Lyeth’ confidently stands on its own strengths. This is fine album in my eyes, especially for a debut.
In case you haven’t noticed, I also have a penchant for offering constructive criticism when I think that it’s pertinent. With that being said….guys, keep it fun and keep it fresh as you move forward with your musical career. This is an extremely imaginative release, and you’re going to have to up the ante on your next one to avoid the dreaded sophomore slump. Look into all the weird fiction that’s out there beyond the wall of sleep. There are lots of great anti-heroes that you can draw upon for inspiration besides The Adverse One. Keep drinking your beer and writing your riffs, because you’re obviously onto something, and no one can take that away from you, not even me with my feeble pen and polished words.
Argonauta Records – Release Date: February 13th, 2017
Two men brought together in the bands UNWELCOME and KESSLER decided in 2014 that they need to play their own flavor of music, saying they “designed it to be an undeniable source of power.” As the 11 tracks demonstrate, they aren’t kidding.
Andrea (guitar / vocals) and Maxim (drums) decided to say YES to stirring up a writhing pit of sweaty bodies, YES to heavy-music and want to remind each of us that “This is not a dress-rehearsal, this is the BIG SHOW!!” With an agreed vision that what they can do together should not be denied, this ‘collision of two different people collaborating as was always the intention’, have given this shape shifting revelation that has taken form in “Labbrador.”
Opener ‘Evil Sky’ comes out of the gate at full speed leaving no doubt that this is not going to be anything less than an assault with a relentless pummeling from Maxim while Andrea takes you along, making you want to ‘touch the sky’ with him. The multi layered backing vocals mixed with the ethereal guitar lines give all the body you need to not notice that there are no bass lines here.
‘Going Home’ / ‘Hey You’ and title track ‘Labbrador’ are further examples of what can be done with the swirling mixture of hard rock/stoner/post-punk can become when mixed in equal parts and then seasoned with some hardcore kicks and licks thrown in for good measure. ‘Blind’ shows that Andrea is not afraid to poke fun at some of his peer-group with the high-pitch tone he takes with alternating passages through the lyrics, sounding almost like some Bieber-prepubescent kid before he drops back to his regular growl into his mic emphasizing ‘it’s easy when you know’ as he spits over piercing notes from his Les Paul.
‘Perfect Black’ begins with a clean tone, something you wouldn’t expect from based on what has been heard to this point, but when Andrea’s voice hits 30 seconds in, it makes perfect sense. When the first solo break hits, that clean tone serves the song perfectly. There are three tracks listing a guest performance from Xavier Iriondo, ‘Sixty-Two’ / ‘Think’ and ‘SheMale’ that show an even blacker depth to THEBUCKLE. ‘Think’ starts of with the thick distorted chords accented by a nice combo of snare and rim shots, establishing an almost galloping pace that smooths into a sweet flex-closing ride cymbal going wide open through the pauses between measures, Maxim showing his true prowess behind the kit as beat-master while Andrea and Xabier deliver supremely, making this sound HUGE without losing the identity of what THEBUCKLE is. ‘SheMale’ is another one to show their twisted sense of humor as Andrea says he wanted ‘more’ but ‘can not make it work’… cracked me up.
‘On My Own’ takes me back to ‘Portrait Of An American Family’-era MARILYN MANSON with the vocal delivery so MM in attack and intent and a deep-dark HEAVINESS in the body of the song. It is obvious this is no joke ripping through your speakers. Disc closer ’12 Seconds’ is another facet to this gem of a band telling a tale wrapped around an Apollo mission, complete with injected radio communications, the last being the statement that “The heavens have become a part of Man’s world.” Started off with the sky and ended with it as well through the journey of this record.
The stand-out track on this one for me is ‘Sixty-Two.’ It with an even tempo that is immediately slower than the rest in true stoner fashion, and the loopy melody of the song will keep your attention as it curls around the tendrils of your brain, the vocal line bringing a DEFTONES flavor along as the perfect garnishment. While each song is well structured and written, this particular track brings a coherence that is at its strongest here. If there is one to be released as the lead-off from this record, this should be the one in MY opinion. Awesome stuff here, front to back and I would love to see them do it live and witness the ‘undeniable’ of this duo as they weave their visions of what they have described as “Dark and gloomy atmospheres tempered with obtundent, memorable melodies”. The world awaits gentlemen… \m/
Catania, Italy is home to this five-man doom/stoner metal machine who’s latest release “The Law Of Purity” is set to be unleashed this February worldwide; let me help get you ready for this one…
Starting out in 2012 when Frank The Door (Marco-bass) and Red Frank (Seby-rhythm guitar) shared a passion for stoner-rock citing bands like BLACK SABBATH and KYUSS as favorites and influences. Lord J. Frank (Alfredo-drums) and Frank Sinutre (Francesco-lead guitar/vocals) completed the line up with that familiar recipe of old style whiskey, enough bass-fuzz to pull the hair off of your cat, quick shifting tempos and the aggro-gruff vocals that all lend to their psych-stoner spirited compositions. RHINO did their time playing biker festivals and the club/bar circuits tallying up a fan-base that pushed them along, allowing them to hone their craft to a razor sharp level. When asked to describe themselves, the response was “You in the desert, dust in your eyes and lovely mirages.” You could almost hear the Bongwater bubbling with that answer. Releasing their first 4-track EP in 2013, they kept hammering away and in late 2015 based in what I could glean, they cemented the five piece arrangement with the departure of Frank Sinutre, replacing him with Frank Real Tube (Luca-lead guitar) and Frank The Doc (Niko-lead vocal). The end result is PURE Sicilian stoner/hard rock as this release will demonstrate.
Lead-off single and title track ‘Law Of Purity’ begins with a pulsing back noise littered with birdsong that suddenly become the sound of tape running backward, high-speed until the guitar line begins, complete with muted cymbal tapping and then 30 seconds in, the rest of the band kick in as Niko’s voice rips your eardrums open with his growling delivery. Proving their might from the onset, it is obvious that RHINO is ready to dominate as the track rolls through with their signature pounding fuzzed out bass, time-shifts from hell and guitars working in perfect tandem letting the tale of this “New Messiah” unfold. The same guitar tone takes you into ‘Bursting Out’ as seamlessly as sugar folding into coffee, leveling out into a slow gallop as Niko starts out, “Sometimes, I feel…” leading you along this tale of “something hidden”, wondering what lies behind the “sleepless”…
‘Grey’ opens with two measures of measured snare and cymbal before the spaced out guitars take your arm and push you along this faster paced tempo taking you over through the twists and turns of time-shifts and bass runs quick enough to get you dizzy before the psych-solo rips into your brain at the midpoint, cascading through your bloodstream until Niko’s voice comes back, relaying the remainder of this tale to your waiting brain until it fades to silence.
‘Nuclear Space’ starts out with this funky bass line that goes on for about two and a half measures until the rest of the band comes in full-force, distortion boxes screaming all around. Fulfilling the need to give their take on what lies behind our very own atmosphere, this track is like the proverbial train dragging you along until the track just stops cold. Enter immediately ‘Eat My Dust’, a slower romp as unrelenting as ever in all it’s distorted majesty, VERY reminiscent of WARRIOR SOUL in it’s ‘simplistic-complexity’ of spinning guitar lines with a KORY CLARKE like vocal-delivery that has you grabbing to savor each syllable being belted out. ‘Nine Months’/’A & B Brown’ and ‘Cock Of Dog’ could easily be a 15 minute ‘jam piece’ for their live set as all run so smoothly together, one after the other as if they were intended to be a three piece opus.
For whatever reason, it seems to be a tendency for the last track of most stoner bands to be the perfect book-end and a precursor of what looms next and RHINO seems to be no exception here. ‘I See Monsters’ has so many elements mixed together saluting their aforementioned influences in power and might with the SABBATH-style window rattling thickness of guitar/bass and that MONOLITH vocal sneer describing the “monsters in your mind.” 48 minutes later, I had to pick my jaw up to close my mouth in my astonishment and appreciation for what I had just took in and if you know what is good for YOU, you will grab this one the second it is released!!
New Single by Iowa’s Telekinetic Yeti – ‘Stoned and Feathered’ from their forthcoming debut album “Abominable” to be released March 17th, 2017 on Sump Pump Records. Available on Vinyl / DD.
Pre-Order your copy now!! http://sumppumprecords.com/albums/vinyl/telekinetic-yeti-abominable
All songs written by Telekinetic Yeti
Telekinetic yeti is:
Alex Baumann – guitar/vocals
Anthony Dreyer – drums
Recorded at flat black studios in iowa in 2016.
Mixed by luke tweedy
Mastered by carl saff.
Album artwork by headbang design
Well well well….it seems that Kayros have been around and flying under my radar for quite some time, as they formed ten years ago and have quite a few albums already under their belt. This is the first that I’ve heard of this Chilean four piece, and I have to say that I’m quite pleasantly surprised. All the elements of their complex sound are familiar, yet they combine them in unique and creative ways. There’s also a lot of slightly bizarre and off-kilter melodic choices in their riffs and chords with lend the songs a certain freshness as well. That’s good when you’re talking about “stoner rock”, which can often be extremely derivative and uninspired. The heavy Kyuss influence is pretty obligatory in when you’re working in this genre, though few bands fuse the classic desert rock sounds so seamlessly with the gonzo keyboards of space rock.
First off, this is one helluva headphone album – there’s just so much going on in the stereo field, especially with the keyboards. They’re not super present on every song, though when they stand out, they really steal the show. The vocals of Jose Ignacio Mora are in that eerie Ozzy vein, high pitched and with tons of echo. Mora doubles up with Sebastian Lara (who is also apparently responsible for the stellar keyboard work….) on the guitar duties, and together they create a down-tuned and totally blown out sound. The bass of Pancho Pavez seems a little low in the mix to me, though he seems to roughly follow the guitars when I can hear the bass lines. Leo Mantis handles drum duties, and his tom heavy beats have a sweet interplay between busier parts and more straightforward drum work. All and all, Kayros seems rock solid and well developed, though I’ll say straight away that I find the production and mix to be a little odd. There’s not a lot of low end, it’s tough to hear the bass and the kick drum, and the keyboards are always way, way on the top of the mix when they’re doing their thing. Granted, I like the keyboards, so I’m willing to concede the last bit, though the thin low end is a bit of a detraction for sure.
Song wise, I’ll start off by saying that all the lyrics are in Spanish. I don’t speak Spanish, so I’m not sure what they’re singing about, though that’s not really a problem for me since the vocals are so atmospheric anyways. They just seem like another instrument adding a vital ingredient to an already rich the sonic soup. Over the course of eight songs, Kayros show their proficiency and deftness for the various elements that make for classic stoner songs: there’s the obligatory downtuned desert rock riffing, exotic hallucinatory melodies, harmonized guitars straight out of the first Truckfighters album, and of course the pulsing keyboards that would make Hawkwind proud to share the stage. Opening track “Hombre Piedra” is the standout for me, an eight plus minute odyssey through time and space. It starts off with some clean, sparkling guitar chords and bizarre bursts of synth, then one guitar drops a trance inducing riff. From there the song builds off some super cool modal melodies until both guitars groove on the riff and the vocals come in. Around the five-minute mark, they break down the song with some natural harmonics right out of the Soundgarden playbook. I love guitar harmonics. After that, there’s a full throttle, far out keyboard solo. Nasty!
“Crisis RH2” is a short and straightforward track that starts strong with the double axe attack riding a low-down riff for all its worth, and the vocals kick in soon afterwards. The keyboards are used sparingly on this track; there’s a cool phase shifted noise that really effectively accents the chorus, though I honestly can’t tell if it’s a keyboard or heavily effected guitar. “Gaza” starts off with one of those aforementioned quirky melodic ideas, like something Queens Of The Stone Age would utilize, though Kayros play it much more trippy. Eventually the intro evolves into a slower, more simplistic riff, like a Neanderthal driving a dump truck. The keyboards kick in on top, followed by the vocals. The chorus adds a bit more melody to the main riff, there’s some more cool guitar and keyboard solos, then the song ends in a slow, primal riff and fading feedback.
The instrumental “Ciudad Fantasma” begins with some synths inspired by the nearest pulsar, and gradually adds on layer after layer of psychedelic soundscape, effectively challenging the laws of physics for three minutes. “Circo Infierno” is another more straight up, guitar heavy track, though once again they use the keyboards to punctuate key points throughout. There’s some great guitar harmonies on this one, and some of the albums most intense riffing. “Hacia El Avismo” starts off spacey and slow, eventually builds up steam, then alternates between the two approaches. It’s definitely one of the more straight up space rock tracks, with the wind-like synth sweeps dominating the scenery. “Caminos Maginales” also starts off with slower, more evil sounding riffs, and somehow Kayros is able to morph into a swinging major key vocals, which reminds me a lot of some of the songs off the first Core record. They end things with the drum heavy closer “Isanidad”, which starts off in a flurry of tribal toms and adds in lava laced guitars and sinister keyboard melodies. I thought that they were going for an instrumental add first, though the vocals finally come in towards the end of the track.
Kayros definitely prove that they’re a veteran band on this release, juggling rugged individuality with the classic influences of the stoner rock canon. They have a real knack for layering sounds on top of one another, whether it’s guitars, vocals or keyboards, and this allows them to ride out each riff for all its worth through the processes of theme and variation. I really enjoy this album tremendously. It’s not perfect, but it’s visionary. Fans of bands like Los Natas, Gas Giant and Astrosoniq should really get on board with this one, I haven’t heard a record like this since the early days of the stoner rock explosion.
Band Line Up:
José Ignacio Mora – Guitar/Vox • Sebastian Larrea – Guitar • Leo Mantis – Drums • Pancho Pavez – Bass
