"Occult Doom from Bendigo, Victoria" screams the blurb on Australian four piece AstroFuzz's Bandcamp page and if you are listening to the bands debut release "Necromancer" while reading this review then you will already be coming to the realization that "occult doom" is exactly what AstroFuzz deliver.
If you are a fan Sleep and/or Electric Wizard then AstroFuzz's blend of stoner and proto doomic dynamics and their hazily delivered satanic/horror themed lyrics, is going to be right up your street. Just mentioning Sleep and Electric Wizard will tell you that AstroFuzz are a band who place a huge emphasis on the power of a riff and this is a band with riffs to spare, low slow riffs, relentless riffs and galloping proto flavoured riffs all drenched in so much fuzz and distortion that there are moments when you worry that they will just descend into a grey electrical noise. To the bands credit they never allow that to happen and they achieve this by counterbalancing their heavily effected refrains, on songs with titles like "Horror From Space", "Leviathan" and "Destroy All Monsters", with deft little touches of space-like colouring, scorching blues tinted lead breaks and hazy vocals laid so far back in the mix that they act more like another instrument than an actual bona-fide vocal. There is no getting away from the fact that what AstroFuzz bring to the table is riff based heaviness of a relentless, pummeling nature but that is also their appeal. We, of this thing we call the underground, all like grooves that will stretch us and challenge us with their complexities and intricacies but we all also have a basic need for something a little more base and primal and with "Necromancer" AstroFuzz deliver that.
Relentlessness and heaviness are the weapons in AstroFuzz's armory and they wield them with brutal skill and dexterity, the sound they create with these weapons is an uncompromising assault on the senses that gives no quarter and takes no prisoners.
Check 'em out.....
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