If you are veteran of the underground rock/metal scene you will already be familiar with New York's Clouds Taste Satanic, if you are not then you have sadly been missing out. Clouds Taste Satanic are the instrumental doom band other instrumental doom based outfits aspire to be, a band who know their way around a few good riffs and rhythms but also know how to augment those riffs and rhythms with a plethora of dynamic variables and subtle shades and textures. The band, Steve Scavuzzo (guitar);.Brian Bauhs (guitar); Greg Acampora (drums) and Rob Halstead (bass), have just recently released "Tales Of Demonic Possession" (Majestic Mountain Records) the latest in a long line of consistently high quality, and well received, releases that has made them one of the go to band for scintillating instrumental heaviness.
The tracks that populate "Tales Of Demonic Possession" are huge sprawling affairs, which if you follow the band you will know is the norm for CTS, this is a band for whom a three minute song is an impossibility, a band who like to paint their musical portraits on a far broader canvas. First up is the 18 minutes plus "Flames and Demon Drummers" a song that begins life soothing and serene but then takes so many twists and turns along its way its becomes hard to know if you are listening to the same song you, not so long ago, dropped the needle on, and this is true of all four of the albums songs. Some of those twists and turns CTS take on "Tales of Demonic Possession" can be seen coming and are flowed into with subtlety and finesse but others burst out on you like a deranged alien face-hugger, unexpected and startling. Meandering is a word not in the CTS vocabulary, you will not find this band jamming endlessly on a groove or noodling just for the sake of noodling, they are a band always looking for that next avenue to explore, that next musical horizon to conquer, there are no constants to be found on this album, "Flames and Demon Drummers", "Sun Death Ritual", "Spirits of the Green Desert" and "Conjuring the Dark Rider" are almost like living breathing entities, untamed and unpredictable liable to lick your hand one minute the next rip your arm off.
The musicianship throughout "Tales Of Demonic Possession" is absolutely jaw dropping, the guitar solo's soar, scream and screech, the bass lines growl and boom and the drumming is a scintillating blend of feral power and light handed restraint. Clouds Taste Satanic are not just a band at the top of their game they are a band ABOVE the game looking down and showing others how instrumental music should be done.
Check 'em out .....
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