TELLEMAHOOKAH ~ TELLEMAHOOKAH ... review

We at Desert Psychlist get sent/recommended tons of music from bands and artists from all over the globe but there is something especially pleasing when we are steered towards something of quality by a band hailing from our very own British shores. The steering in this case of this review came from Adam Walsh, a fellow Doom Charts contributor, who, via the Charts covert networking, recommended that we bend an ear in the direction of "Tellemahookah". a recorded live in the studio release from a band bearing the same name, a recommendation we will be eternally grateful for. 

Tellemahookah, Rob Parker (drums); Daniel Murtagh (guitar) and Mark Pickard (bass/vocals), are a band hailing from England's West Midlands who jam a unique blend of stonerized heavy rock and proto-metal/doom dressed up with vocals that bear a distinctive goth like flavour, it is a sound we at Desert Psychlist immediately gelled with and one we think you will too.

Opening track "25 Roam To The Peak Of Unknown" begins with an atmospheric and drone like bass effect that is then accompanied by subtle percussion and eastern tinted guitar motifs over which mantra-like vocals, bearing a striking similarity to those of Bauhaus' Pete Murphy, are intoned. The songs musical dynamic up to this point has sat very much in the canon of British goth rock/metal but a quarter of the way in that dynamic shifts and the groove takes on a much more proto-doomic/stoner like vibe, the songs vocal delivery still bearing a goth-like remoteness  but with the surrounding grooves becoming heavier, harder and more insistent that sees searing solos weaving back and forth over thunderous drumming and thrumming bass lines. The doomic elements featured in the latter parts of the previous track are pushed further to the fore on next track "The Rise Of The Night Witch", Pickard's vocals here are again delivered clipped and goth(ic) but the overall musical dynamic here leans more towards the stoner end of the doom spectrum, albeit with some nice essences of psych and heavy rock thrown in for good measure. Parker and Murtagh lay down an excellent array of dank groove for Pickard to wrap his shamanic vocal tones and swirling guitar textures around on the dark and ominous sounding "Call The Witch Doctor", in their liner notes the band make mention of their intention to bring "a raw thick wall of fuzz to your ears" and they certainly achieve that aim with this song. For their final number, "(Sister Lust) Pure Evil" Tellemahookah go into full on doom mode with Parker and Murtagh locking in tight on a sedate and sinister groove that Pickard enhances with a stunning mix of searing and equally sinister guitar textures, his distinctive vocals, here delivered in a haunting monastic cadence, giving the song an almost spiritual/ritualistic feel.

Stunning atmospheric doom of a stoner persuasion laced with essences and flavours of heavy psych and 80's British goth is what Tellemehookah serve up with their self titled debut, a release packed to its rafters with everything any discerning underground rock fan could possibly ask for in their music.. and then some. 

Check it out .....

© 2025 Frazer Jones