Desert Psychlist could easily bullshit you, our readers, and tell you we know everything that is needed to be known about the heavy rock and metal scene in Israel, we could tell you that there is a thriving scene there with many up-and-coming bands edging ever closer towards international recognition and because Israel is not a major force on the underground rock scene (yet) or much written about you will probably never know we are bullshitting you. The truth is Desert Psychlist knows diddley-squat about what's going on in Israel musically and even less about which bands are hot and which are not. Historically Israel is a country that has always played its cards close to its chest, a country in constant dispute with the countries surrounding its borders, so it not surprising that we know very little about its alternative musical culture, pop or rock. However, every now and then an Israeli band will pop up, seemingly out of nowhere, and give us an inkling of what might be going on there.
Methuselian, Ariel Beker (vocals/bass); Yohan Katzanelson (guitars) and Alex Krivinski (drums), have just released their debut album "Beyond Human", it is an album with a very unique sound, a sound rooted in the soils of stoner metal, doom and heavy rock but fronted by an ancient vocal style (Tuvan) usually only utilized by the indigenous peoples of Mongolia and Siberia. It is a sound that might take a few minutes of listening to fully appreciate but one that once you do get will start you to wondering why, outside of Mongolian metal collective The Hu, there are not many more bands doing this, it is just so damn DOOM!
"Beyond Human" consists of just three tracks but they are HUGE tracks packed full of interesting twists and turns that leave the listener wondering where the music might go next but at the same time not really wanting to know because that would spoil the surprise. The first of those tracks is "496" a sprawling blend of heady psych, 70's heavy rock and stoner doom drenched in WAH pedal heavy guitar solos, crunching riffage and constantly shifting rhythms all topped of with a mix of rumbling throat singing, harsh demonic growls and larynx destroying screeches, the band even throwing in some blues-like swagger just to keep us on our toes. Second song "Prometheus" begins with a lone guitar motif that is then joined by the drums and bass in a groove that has a Colour Haze(ish) vibe in its initial stages but then as it increases in intensity and heaviness becomes more doomic in feel, a feel further enhanced by its low rumbling throaty vocal telling a mythological tale of conflict among old gods. "Descent" rounds "Beyond Human" off and is an absolute monster of a song that begins with Beker laying down a low luscious bass line over which Katzanelson taps out ringing natural harmonics. Krivinski embellishes this languid groove with shimmering percussion before moving onto a more tribal drum pattern over which Beker sings about a "ghost with no head and limbs " and " Gods of earth", first in his natural clean voice but then gradually moving into his adopted Tuvan style. Things get a little heavier both vocally and musically as things progress with the song moving towards a more blackened doom dynamic and the vocals taking on a more harsh and manic tone but only after a very 70's flavoured middle section of bluesy guitar pyrotechnics, followed by a brief return to the groove that licked things off initially is completed.
Q: What do you call a band like Methuselian whose music is an amalgamation of blackened metal, doom and sludge yet at any given moment can suddenly go off on a flight into bluesy hard rock and heavy psych and whose vocals hark back to an ancient singing style once believed to be a way to communicate with the natural world?
A: AWESOME!
Check 'em out .....
No comments:
Post a Comment