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What
a couple of misleading first tracks let me tell you. On
one hand it got me thinking that all the talk about
psychedelic metal was perhaps nothing but fanfare, a
weak attempt to capture a rabid audience instead of true
words. “Tentacle Gears” sounds too robotic to be
anything psychedelic. Sure, there are loads of effects
and cool noises -stuff very unmetal but inherently
trippy- layered there, but once that super exact and
inhuman double bass kick drum goes full speed the whole
of Skeleton of God sort builds a stiffy into a pile of
disorienting industrial metal. A head-scratcher for
sure, but perhaps that’s not always a good thing.
Then
Skeleton of God do an about face and reveal themselves to be
some pretty capable psychedelic death doomsters. That’s where
the good stuff happens. The vocals are pretty death metal. A
monstruous growl, deep, guttural and cavernous in stark contrast
to the music, which by the third track has shaken off all
particles of industrial exactitude. “IntroSpection” is a small
gem. A thick and bulky short song of organic psychedelia, a
melodic solo floating around, a dragging riff and Chris
Barnes-like throat work and a gong at the end. I need more of
that.
“Cerebral
Vipers” starts off as your standard death metal song. Except,
there are certain sonic fluctuations audible only to those
really into canine frequencies. By the time the doom comes,
guitarist/vocalist Jeff Kahn bends his fret notes in dissonant
fashion. The balance found between this psychedelic doom and
that death metal frenetism is quirky to say the least. Come the
third minute and Skeleton of God are deities of psychedelic
doom.
Other songs
are fed with what sounds like the unused bits of some obscure
Dario Argento soundtrack, droning passages of 70’s synth work
and sufficient rocking doom to feed off about two dozen Black
Sabbath wannabe’s. So much indeed I wonder how good would
Skeleton of God be were they to discard their death metal side.
So I wonder how to some, half these tunes waste great riffs,
moods, and ideas by radically inserting the close minded
aesthetics of death metal. It is what it is, so take Primordial
Dominion or leave it.
This album
comes in a gorgeous digipack. Not even stable labels put this
much effort into presenting a good looking end product so kudos
to the band. Some of that budget could have gone to improve the
sound a little bit which at times comes as muffled. A
disadvantage for sure especially knowing how detailed this music
is, and how some sounds may be forever lost in the murk.
Official Site
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