STINKING LIZAVETA ~ JOURNEY TO THE UNDERWORLD ... review

Yanni Papadopoulos (guitar), Alexi Papadopoulos (bass) and Cheshire Agusta (drums) are Stinking Lizaveta an instrumental band from Philadelphia who have been plying their trade around the venues of the world since their formation in 1994 gaining a reputation as a solid live unit as well as during that time releasing seven well received albums. The band have been described as playing a form of stonerized heavy instrumental rock  that some have referred to as "doom jazz", the trio laying down heavy grooves of intense metallic rhythmic bluster coated in a mix of complex and prog-like guitar pyrotechnics. This year (2017) the trio release their eighth album "Journey To The Underworld" (Translation Loss Records) The first thing that hits the listener when listening to "Journey To The Underworld "is the high levels of musicianship that Stinking Lizaveta bring to the table, Cheshire Agusta's incredible drumming is the base on which Stinking Lizaveta build their grooves, jazzy and intricate with the lightest of touches one minute a whirling dervish of crushing percussive might the next shifting seamlessly between the two dynamics without missing a beat. Alexi Papadopoulus meanwhile holds down the bottom end with some stunningly deep and intricate bass playing, whether locking in with Agusta, to lay down swathes of complex rhythm or filling in the spaces left by the guitarist with exquisite booming liquid bass lines the bassist is never less than brilliant. Guitarist Yanni Papadopoulus pours into this heady rhythmic brew a mixture of finger blurring neo-classical shredding, gently picked arpeggios, crunching powerchords, djent -like riffage and jazzy chord progressions managing to avoid the trap of overindulgent noodling by playing inside the songs rather than over them. It's  hard to pick favourites from "Journey To The Underworld" as each of the nine songs that make up the album have something about them to savour and enjoy but if pushed Desert Psychlist would have to plump for either the schizophrenic "Witches and Pigs" or the prog metal-ish "Six Fangs" but others will have their own opinions. Check it out ......