THE RING ~ IMAGINATOR ....... review

The Ring hail from Yogyakarta, Indonesia and consist of Jacky (vocals); Chandra (guitar), Miko (drums) and Aditya (bass) and, if we are not mistaken, their debut release "Imaginator" is only the fourth release from an Indonesian combo we have featured on Desert Psychlist's pages (the others being by Shankar, Deathgang and Jawless). The Ring's sound is an infectious mix of stonerized hard rock and proto-doom underscored with touches of lysergic heavy psych that is then decorated in clean, slightly raw, lead and harmonised vocals, its a sound that is a little abrasive and untamed in places but one that ticks way more boxes than it leaves blank.

"Imaginator" opens its account with "Fake Plastic Woman", a hard driven rocker with a galloping metallic groove overlaid with an infectious vocal melody, the songs lyrics (and that of every song on the album) are delivered in what is best described as "broken" English but given that English is not the bands first language this is totally acceptable and detracts nothing from the enjoyment as it is easy to follow the gist and flow of their meaning. "Slapt" is up next and follows a similar pattern to its predecessor, chugging riffs, strident rhythms above which those unique clean, slightly gritted, vocal tones tell their tale. Next comes "Nurnitha's Gov" a song that is both a lyrical rant against injustice and corruption and a plea for a peaceful life played out over a musical backdrop that is part stoner rock and part proto-metal with some heavy psych textures thrown in for good measure. This is much the pattern for the whole album, the band blending elements of Sabbath-esque proto-doom with elements of hard rock and metal while throwing lysergic textures and colours into the mix wherever they see them fitting, As the album progresses so does the music with the band moving more and more towards a darker, danker and more doomic dynamic. It is this darker half of the album that really pays dividends for The Ring with songs like "QAF", "Whispers", "V.E.A" and the excellent title track, "Imaginator" really showing what these guys are capable of when they decide to jettison the brighter more desert/stoner aspects of their sound and fully embrace the darkness.

Indonesia is a somewhat untapped resource for underground music, despite there being a thriving scene over there, that is slowly changing though with bands like The Ring able to showcase their music to a wider international audience through sites like Bandcamp and Spotify. "Imaginator" might be a touch naïve and a little raw in places and the lyrics might not meet Oxford Dictionary standards but what it  lacks in sophistication it more than makes up for in groove and drive.

Check it out ..... 

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