Desert Psychlist has for a long time had an unhealthy obsession with Sweden's sludge/doom behemoths Ordos, so much so that not a week seems to go by without the bands self-titled debut, their mind-blowing follow up "House of the Dead" or their excellent third album "The End" are not heard blaring out through the halls of Stonerking Towers. The trouble with this obsession is that Ordos are not the most prolific of bands, they've been promising new material for what seems like an age, and there are not that many bands out there whose blend of atmospheric doom and sludge hits our sweet spot in quite the same way, well that was until today when we pushed play on a self-titled album from another Swedish outfit going by the name of Hexjakt. The band, Hampus Henningsson (guitar/vocals); Toni Åkerman (bass/vocals) and Dan Nordin (drums), jam grooves that possesses many of those same qualities that first drew our ear to the mighty Ordos, big riffs and rhythms aligned with slightly theatrical and manic vocals, but where Ordos threw away most their Sabbathian influences to embrace a more "blackened" sound Hexjakt's are there for all to hear, along with a few nods to High On Fire, Sleep and Egypt.
Things kick off with "Rites of Fire" its opening salvo of droning dissonant guitar noise slowly shapes itself into thick toned dank riffage that is driven by solid thunderous drumming, vocals here are delivered dually by both Henningsson and Åkerman and possess an almost vaudevillian quality, so much so that you could almost imagine this being played out on stage by actors in Victorian clothing twirling long thin moustaches. Musically on point throughout and also including a brief but intriguing off -kilter middle section, this is a great way to open a debut. "Thunderous Skies" follows its proto-doomic refrains, dialled down to waltz time, are as thunderous as the skies it mentions in its title while its vocals border on depraved, yelled with a passionate anger for the most part only briefly dropping down from that dynamic to deliver malevolent narration in the songs sinister middle section breakdown. Next up is "Valley of the Dead" and here we find Hexjakt smashing together elements of Egypt's "Valley of the Kings" with aspects of Ordos' "House of the Dead" and coming up with something just as iconic and mind-mincing, super cool storytelling lyrics, full on grizzled lead vocals, inharmonious harmonies and guitar solos that send shivers down the spine, the only criticism that could possibly be thrown this songs way is that at 4:49 it is too damn short. Finally we arrive at "The Flood" its slowed down Sabbathian groove, enhanced by swirling guitar motifs, is deliciously dark and dank and serves as the perfect platform for the gnarled and grizzled vocal tones that decorate it, the song closes its account with an atmospheric and hazy passage of languid psych that leaves you in no doubt that there is a lot more to this band than just riffs, rhythms, and growls.
Sweden's reputation for cranking out top notch underground rock bands is something we in this scene are all well aware of but Hexjakt are not a great band because they are Swedish they are a great band because they have great arrangements, have an understanding of what makes a song work and can play the shit out of their instruments all of which will become abundantly clear when giving their self-titled debut a spin.
No comments:
Post a Comment