Desert Psychlist has been bending the ears of anyone who will listen regarding Italy's burgeoning acid/psych doom scene, but Italy does not hold a monopoly on bands who have a tuned in, turned on and dropped out approach to the doom genre. All over the world there are bands popping up who's grooves owe as much to Timothy Leary as they do Tony Iommi and today we will be introducing you to one of those bands and one that just happens to reside in Desert Psychlist's UK homeland.
Amon Acid, Sarantis Charvas (guitars/synths/vocals); Briony Charvas (bass/cello) and Smith (drums), hail from the West Yorkshire city of Leeds and along with a love of Sabbath-ian refrains, Hawkwind-esque swirls and Floydian textures are also hooked on sci-fi and horror movie soundtracks (check out their release "Diogenesis"[The Weird Beard Label] a collection of music influenced by among others the film director/composer John Carpenter and Italian prog rockers Goblin). "Cosmogony" (Regain Records), the bands second release of 2022, is more geared towards the former rather than the latter but is not bereft of the odd nod to horror and sci-fi movies soundtracks or afraid to dip its toes back into the heady psych of earlier releases as you will find out when you give it a spin.
Desert Psychlist was determined to avoid the word "trippy" when describing Amon Acid's music in this review but that became an unachievable objective a minute or two into opening track "Parallel Realm", its flute-like intro making way for a groove that sees swirling eastern motifs, thrumming drones and synthesised whoops and whirls competing for dominance around a low pitched semi-monotonic vocal delivered in a mantra-like meter made "trippy "seem pretty apt. Next track "Hyperion" finds our trio flexing their doom muscles with a tune that nods its head to both Black Sabbath and Electric Wizard but is also reminiscent, (to Desert Psychlist's ears anyway), of now defunct UK proto-doom outfit Caravan of Whores. Up next is "Death on the Altar", a song that gives the band another chance to blend their eastern motifs with their western refrains, it is followed by "Demolition Wave" an absolute beast of a song that boasts some really impressive lead guitar and synth from S, Charvas as well as a great vocal, his hard work and industry ably supported by B. Chavras' low growling bass and Smith's solid tight and industrious percussion. We did mention earlier of Amon Acid's obsession with movie soundtracks and "Nag Hammandi" gives the band free reign to indulge in that obsession, the songs ritualistic chants and droning eastern refrains combine to give the song a cinematic feel worthy of a cult horror b-movie, you can almost envision this set against a backdrop of ancient temples and rust coloured dunes, which is a little weird when you consider that the swirling synth effects S. Charvas chooses to surround this groove with owe more to Bebe and Louis Barron's score for the 1956 sci-fi classic "Forbidden Planet" than they do any desert scenario. "Mandragoras" is another song with a soundtrack feel, albeit mixed with a heavy helping of doom, but this time there is a slightly more orchestrated vibe to the proceedings, Desert Psychlist cannot be one hundred percent certain, but we suspect Briony Charvas' cello has a huge part to play in that vibe. "Demon Rider" dooms right out of the box and features some scorching blues tinted soloing while "Ethereal Mother" finds Amon Acid stripping things back and getting a little stark and minimalistic but still managing to sound cosmic, Final song "The Purifier" is an eleven minutes plus monster that soars and dooms in equal measure, crunching riffs and swirling synths circling over a bedrock of throbbing dank doomic groove, the songs dynamic rising and falling in waves with S. Charvas' voice the songs one constant, his morose tones coming over like a beacon of calm in uncertain waters., it's a "trip" maaaaan!
The band have described "Cosmogony" as being an album that is "more Belladonna than LSD" and as being "a darker trip", statements very hard to disagree with. Amon Acid's last album as three-piece, "Paradigm Shift", saw the band shifting towards a heavier sound, a sound that was still trippy and trance-like but was still more Ozric Tentacles than it was Black Sabbath but with "Cosmogony" the band have seemingly found their inner Sabbath and decided to run with it for a while.... and it suits them.
Check 'em out
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