Those of us of a certain age will remember those days when space rock pioneers Hawkwind would bookcase their jamming on a chord musical endeavours with passages of prose and poetry, something that would prove especially effective on albums like "Warriors On The Edge Of Time" and the iconic live album "Space Ritual". Now you may be asking why Desert Psychlist are opening a review, analysing the merits of a present day album, with mention of the UK's mighty Hawkwind, well the reason is that said album utilizes many of those same spoken word/music/spoken word properties that were Hawkwind's forte. The album we are talking about here is German outfit Black Sadhu's latest release "Ashes Of Aether" a stunningly dark conceptual opus that forewarns of a world brought to its knees by advancements in technology.
The brief but wholly effective opening piece "Roots of Steel" sets the mood for the rest of the album with interwoven droning effects framing spoken narration that tells of a world where "the sky bends in electric arcs" and "only static speaks in our heads", a brief but nonetheless haunting tome. "Phobus" follows, this a song with a more "traditional" doomic dynamic, thick grainy guitar refrains supported by low gravelled bass and solid thunderous and powerful percussion, however traditional does not equate to generic and with its mix of wearied clean and harsh vocals, its whirling spaciousness and its soaring guitar textures there is not a lot you could call generic about this song. "Tumors of Light" is another poetry piece, this one differing from the opening track courtesy of its backdrop of space-like whoops and whistles and constant crackling effects. Next up is "Descent" a song that begins life quite stoner(ish) and up beat but then plummets into a low, slow and heavy stoner-doom groove over which barely audible harsh and gruff vocals are delivered, the songs final section using that stoner-doomic groove as a platform for some impressive interwoven guitar pyrotechnics. It is back to the prose and drones for the tranquil "Silicone Bones" but that tranquillity is soon shattered with the arrival of "Dias Irae", an amalgamation of doom, space rock and heavy psych that blusters and swaggers just as much as it swoops and soars, the true epitome of the term "psychedelic doom", it also boasts a great vocal. "Hearts turned cold" is another poetic piece, its line "our souls entangled in data streams" indicative of where our obsession with technology will/may eventually lead us. "Electric Death" begins with a whispered prayer followed by a few bars of atmospheric ambience but then in comes a throbbing yet crunchy guitar riff accompanied by a clean but gritty vocal melody, then just when you think you are about to ride this groove to the songs conclusion back comes the prayer and ambience only to then be supplanted by a phase drenched sludge refrain over which a nursery rhyme type melody holds sway, think its all over ..well not yet it isn't as there is still a manic blackened metal finale to deal with. Final track "In the ruins of the Divine" uses rolling synthesized effects as the backdrop for prose detailing humanities demise "a flood will come, not of water but light, a blinding wave of our own design", prophetic stuff!
Many of us following Black Sadhu's progress over the years have always suspected that this was a band moving towards doing something epic and special with their music but even with that knowledge none of us could have predicted the levels of magnitude they have brought to the table with "Ashes of Aether", this is other level!
Check it out ....
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