While there may be countless songs titled "Under the Sun," Desert Psychlist is aware of only one band with that name. Hailing from Athens, this Greek group delivers a brand of rock'n'roll rich in fuzz and laden with crunchy riffs, a sound that's evident on their debut album "The Bell of Doom."(Sound Effects Records)
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Given the albums title and artwork and the fact that the word "DOOM" looms large on its cover it might be expected that Under The Sun's debut is an opus drenched in dark down tuned dankness. While it is true that there are moments when the band DO don their cloaks and ride the Sabbathian train to the gates of hell the overall feel throughout this album is one of heavy rock spliced with a little blues and southern rock swagger. First track, "Smoking Angels" opens with a throaty shout of "Oh Yeah" then after a brief burst of rolling drums erupts into a foot to the floor hard rock romp that sits crunchily beneath a gritty vocal that tells of celestial beings getting off their tits on exotic substances. It is followed by "Cry Out" an equally dirty rocker anchored by growling bass and punchy drumming and features swirly guitar motifs squealing and squawking over and around a grizzled and grainy vocal melody. Title track "The Bell of Doom" begins, as it should, with a tolling bell then explodes into a proto-doom(ish) slow and heavy refrain with the vocals mixing up their grittiness with an element of old school doomic semi-operatics. The doominosity of the previous song hangs around like a heavy mist for next song "One Reason" only this time with a little torch-like bluesiness added into the mix, while next track "Going Down" sees Under The Sun employing a little heavy rock stutter in their attack. "The Shot" boasts one of those hard to ignore circular guitar motif's as its hook and there are also moments here, both vocally and musically, where the band get very close to sounding like their fellow countrymen Planet of Zeus, an observation that can also be levelled at following track "Pony Ride". Lastly comes "Know My Name" an absolute gem that is initially full on and rocking but then brings in to play a weird yet wonderful bass heavy middle section replete with vaudevillian vocal trade offs before signing off on a wave of droning effects.
Greece has a had its fair share of problems over the years, especially financially, but there are two things you can always rely on Greece to deliver and that is to die for holiday destinations and ass-kicking underground rock and Under The Sun, with "The Bell Of Doom", have more than delivered on the latter.
Check 'em out ....
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