Trippelgänger, Nicklas Lind (guitar/vocals); Tobias Jacobsen (bass) and Christoffer F. Moland (drums/vocals), hail from Aalborg, Denmark and have, over the past year and a half, been steadily assailing our audial cavities with a series of EP releases which they dub as "trips" and today we are reviewing the third, and latest, in that series the appropriately titled "Third Trip".
First track out of the bag, "Virology", most definitely resides at the traditional end of the doom spectrum, its slow to mid-tempo groove is made up of ponderous, pummelling percussion, growling deep bottom end and low reverberating guitar riffs tinted with just the right amount of wah pedal colouring so as to not stray into "wakka wakka" funk territory. Vocals for this song are delivered dually by Lind and Moland singing in what could be described as harmony but as the word harmony is usually applied to something sweet and melodic and the vocals on this opus sounds more like something you might hear coming from the terraces of a football stadium situated in hell, we are not so sure. "Ride" follows and apart from its low, slow and lysergic middle section steamrolls along at an almost thrash like pace, probably more stoner than it is doom it's a song that hits hard and fast and will leave life changing injuries. "Third Trip" ends its tenure with "Doomsday Clock" a delicious mix of proto doom swagger and traditional doom atmospherics, its sinister intro of tolling bells and pouring rain slowly making way for a low guttural vocal telling us in an almost nursery rhyme meter that "When the ticking stops from the doomsday clock i'll be far from here" against a backdrop of dark guitar arpeggios slightly reminiscent of those gracing the first part of Heaven & Hell's "Bible Black". Much like Heaven & Hell did with their iconic opus Trippelgänger soon jettison those ringing arpeggios and replace them with crunching power chords, grumbling bass lines and thunderous percussion, the band hitting into a groove that is big, loud and deliciously doomic decorated in an ear-catching vocal melody that boasts an intriguing and frankly quite addictive singalong quality, it's a superb choice to bring their third EP to a close with.
Whether Trippelgänger intend releasing these "trips" as a full album later on down the line is not known but for now let's just enjoy what we have, and with "Third Trip" what we have is three tracks of delicious proto doom blended with more than its fair share of traditional doomic dankness.
Check it out ....
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