DESERT WAVE ~ DEAFENING SILENCE ..... review

Up until now most, but not all, of the Italian bands Desert Psychlist has introduced you to have come from the more scuzz rock, acid doom end of the underground spectrum so it makes a nice change to bring you something a little less abrasive and little more considered from the country.

Desert Wave are a trio hailing from Vincenza, Italy consisting of Enrico "Burton" Dalla Pozza (guitar); Luca "Logan" Adamati (bass, vocals, synth) and Andrea "Drugo" Vetri (drums), who some of you may already be acquainted with thanks to their 2017 debut "Lost in Dunes". Desert Wave's approach to their music is quite different to that of their Electric Wizard worshipping countrymen in that Desert Wave's sound owes more to the desert rock experimentations of Yawning Man, Causa Sui and Colour Haze, than it does Electric Wizard's fuzzed to the max doom and has, despite its moments of heaviness, a more chilled and spacious feel. It has been five years since Desert Wave assailed our ears with their unique brand of panoramic desert rock, but good things are always worth waiting for and new album "Deafening Silence" is a very good thing indeed.

Ominous droning synth effects introduce opening track "Outside Pt.1" accompanied by a tight solid drum rhythm that is then joined by guitar in an otherworldly off-kilter jam that then segues into "Outside Pt.2" which shares much the same groove as its predecessor but with everything dialled up a notch and clean, mellow vocals added. Title track "Deafening Silence" follows and is a song built around a trippy circular guitar motif that routinely increases and decreases in volume, such is the hypnotic power of this one motif that it becomes almost easy to overlook what is going on beneath it but listen hard enough and you will soon realise that there is a seriously good rhythm section going about their work here. "Above" and "Vortex" both have a very Colour Haze feel with heavily fuzz drenched bass combining with the drums to build a platform for the guitarist to launch swirling sand-blasted motifs and solos from, the former also boasting a suitably Colour Haze(ish) vocal. "Venus Chains" sees Desert Wave jamming a groove that is a little less Colour Haze and a touch more Re-Stoned/Mother Engine in flavour, while final track "Endless Night" is a spaced-out heavy psych tome with guitar swirling and swooping over a circular drum and bass groove and hushed vocals telling of "ghostly eyes" and "space vampires", impressive stuff!

 With all the doom, stoner metal and 70's retro bands currently swamping the underground the trippy psychedelic rock, of bands like Colour Haze, The Machine, Sungrazer and My Brother the Wind, seems to have taken a bit of a backseat but that does not mean we should ignore it. Italy's Desert Wave, with "Deafening Silence" prove that there is still a place for music that speaks to us on a spiritual rather than earthly level, otherwise who would there be left to play at DUNAJAM

Check it out .... 

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