Desert Psychlist has to admit to not being familiar with California trio Hell Is A City's work up until now, which is not surprising considering that up until recently the band have only been releasing one off tracks on their Bandcamp, but we are on board with them now. The reason they have suddenly appeared on our radar is due to the release of the bands first full length album "Narrow Seas" an intriguing blend of heavy blues and proto-doom perfect for those who like their music sitting on a razor's edge between the heavy rock sound of the 1970's and the stonerized doom and heavy psych of today's underground scene.
Back in 1973 a trio named Stray Dog released one of the most underrated self-titled debut's in rock history, the album opened with "Tramp (How It Is)" a song that began with swelling keyboards, choral singing, cannons and scorching lead guitar only to be then suddenly interrupted by a cry of "fasten your seatbelts" before erupting into one of the best opening rock songs ever to grace a debut album. The reason we mention this is that the feeling Desert Psychlist got when that track exploded into our lives back in the day is akin to the feeling we got today when "Collapse", the opening track of "Narrow Seas", rolled out of our speakers and proceeded to blow us away with its soulful and husky vocals punchy proto doom grooves and swirling guitar textures, a truly "fasten your seatbelts" moment. Now we all own albums that have started strong only to then go quickly downhill but that is not the case here as "Hush" quickly proves with its excellent boogie meets doom groove, its angry with the world lyrical content and its cleverly placed spoken narrative, and lets not forget those face-melting guitar solos. "Narrow Seas/Brewedinterlude" follows with the first part of the song finding Hell Is A City mining for doomic gold while still maintaining a firm grip on the blues, albeit blues tinted with a little Alice In Chains guitar slurriness, the second part of the song a serene and tranquil mood piece. "Dry Your Eyes" finds the band jettisoning the doom for a dynamic with a slightly more grungy desert rock feel while "Skinpiston" sees the band using that old doom trick of switching tempos and time signatures to create a groove that is Sabbathian in flavour if not wholly in sound. Penultimate track "Ask The River" sees Hell Is A City going full delta blues with shimmering slide guitar resonating over low grizzled bass and punchy solid tight drumming, it has to be said that if it were not for the huskier throatier nature of the vocal tones and the sampled narrative that marks the songs final moments then comparisons could easily be made here with Led Zeppelin's/Memphis Minnie's "When The Levee Breaks". Hell Is A City finish their debut with the appropriately titled "The End" a delicious mish mash of alt-metal, heavy blues and proto-doom that is raucous and rocking for the most part but then shifts down into droning ambience as it reaches its conclusion.
Although the blues still plays a significant role in heavy music it is not the force it once was, these days the blues tends to be just another shade on the musical palette, used when needed ignored when not, very rarely do you see new bands for whom the blues is the primary rather than the secondary colour. For Hell Is A City, Karl (vocals/guitar); Gene (bass) and Josh (drums), however the blues are the block on which all their songs are built, every song on "Narrow Seas" has its roots in the genre, this is not a doom album with elements of the blues, this is a blues album with elements of doom.
Check it out ....
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