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In
my
review of Surya I
identified Queen Elephantine as a stoner doom band that
could sonically be linked to Om. Actually, I consider
Surya to be a superior recording than Om’s Pilgrimage.
With Kailash, the comparison is no longer valid. Mostly,
because Queen Elephantine has removed itself so far
apart from the rock block that their songs no longer
have any structure, keep a beat or just simply ‘rock’.
Now, some may salivate at the mere mention of a stoner
band that’s gone experimental or pure drone. Well, the
results here are not that thrilling. Frankly, Kailash
sounds like one long ass excruciating intro and that
sucks.
Kailash
picks up where Surya left off. “Search for the Deathless State”
is actually quite auspicious. With its droning minimalism,
stoner vibrations and trance-like vocals, this could be the
perfect opening for a great record. Things go south fast
though and by second song “Gloaming” we are treated to the kind
of Indian folk that would make The Love Guru proud. No shit. If
I want to listen to regional music I rather go straight to the
source. Bands do well by spicing things up and by looking for
outside influence, but the minute they offer twelve minutes of
chants, table and sitar they might as well just change monikers
and light up the Nag Champa. It’s not badly played, it just
isn’t very good.
“The
Vulture and the Creed” is an actual intro. Only Queen
Elephantine forgot to shorten it and place it in the beginning.
It goes on for over eight minutes and sounds like it was
recorded in Robin Williams’ head. Seriously. Lots of ridiculous
goofy shit going on. Isolated strings. Special effects. Voices
and echoes. I get the feeling that it is really uncomfortable in
there. Or maybe I just don’t get it.
Unfortunately, Kaylash never comes back from this parallel dimension. The rest of the
tunes float aimlessly between pretentious and simplistic
‘experimentation’ (actually, I call it ‘killing time’) and half
baked ideas that never come to fruition. Kaylash is ultimately
really boring and pointless. Poorly executed. A total shame.
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