Here we have another of those scuzzy heavily distortion drenched album from an Italian underground rock band, yes another one of those albums that blends Electric Wizard type doom with heavy psych and elements of 70's proto-metal and tends to drown out its vocals under a blanket of gritty fuzz. Over the last five to ten years we have been swamped with grooves of this nature from bands with names like Demonio, Witchsnake and Wizard Master and we at Desert Psychlist honestly cannot get enough of them, the thrumming grooves these bands serve up is like a drug that we just cannot do without and today sees the release of a new album from one of our favourite dealers in this commodity, the mighty Sonic Demon, Alex (guitars/vocals and bass effects) and Piero (drums) The new album goes by the title "Planet Terror" (Majestic Mountain Records) and of course sports the requisite retro artwork we have come to expect to see gracing albums residing in this gloriously noisy branch of underground rock music..
Things get underway with the deliciously acidic "Demonbreath", Piero supporting Alex's fuzzy guitar refrains and sneery husky vocals with thundering solid busy drumming, Alex telling us, in surprisingly clear and upfront tones, a tale of riding a demon through a dragon's eyes as well as filling our heads with images of laughing gods and dancing witches, its trippy stuff indeed. Next track "Cult of the Fire" sees Alex adding a little reverb to his fuzz to get a darker more doomic tone while Piero opts for a more pounding attack with his drumming, the songs lyrical content here is again delivered in husky clean tones but here sit a little deeper in the mix. Title track "Planet Terror" sees Sonic Demon getting down and extremely filthy on a groove that really showcases the bands Electric Wizard influences, it would also seem the trip these guys were on has taken a nasty turn as here we have Alex waxing lyrical about "serpent men" and "zombies addicted to death". The band remain in doomic territory for "Godhead Overdose" but the overall dynamic here is faster and harder while the epic sized "Beyond Eternity" goes in completely the other direction and slows things down while also getting a little hazy in the vocal department, for the most part this song lopes along on a diet of heavily fuzzed out riffage and thundering percussion but then unexpectedly closes out in a wall of droning noise and dark feedback. Penultimate track "Rolling Thunder" lives up to its title due to its rolling stoner rock gait and, you guessed it, being thunderous, which brings us to final number "Hellqueen" an instrumental that sees Piero laying down a fairly simplistic four to the floor beat over which Alex twins WAH type bass effects with his usual array of pedals to create an off-kilter, dissonant noise that is as schizophrenic as it is brilliant!.
© 2025 Frazer Jones
No comments:
Post a Comment