Bandcamp, the sleeping giant of the music platforms and the seemingly preferred medium of the fans of the underground rock scene, may have its faults but it also has many redeeming qualities, one of those redeeming qualities is in the way it has given bands and artistes from outside of Europe and the USA a platform from which they can get their grooves heard internationally rather than just nationally. During Desert Psychlist's time as a Bandcamp subscriber we have discovered bands/artistes from Peru, Indonesia, Chile, South Korea and many other countries that we would never had stumbled across if it had not been for Bandcamp. One of those bands we discovered, thanks to Bandcamp's platform, is Malaysian stoner doom trio Tripping Haze Ceremony, the band Epulyard (guitars/keyboards/vocals); Sara (bass) and Lem (drums), have been doing their thing since around the mid 2000's and have accrued a respectable following thanks to the release of their well received full length self-titled debut "Tripping Haze Ceremony" and their inclusion on sampler albums released by DHU Records and Blues Funeral Recordings and "Double Doom Split" (a shared recording with with Italy's Kavod). The band have just released their second full length album "Indicat" and if acid drenched low slow and heavy stoner doom is your jam then this is an album you will most definitely want to hear.
Title track "Indicat" kicks things off, its intro of droning guitar noise is overlaid with sampled narration that documents controlled tests made on army veterans in regard to the effects of marijuana on the human body. The guitars starts to take on a more doomic dynamic as the veteran in the narrative gets "higher" with the drums laying down a battery of sedate and thunderous rhythms for the bass and guitar to decorate with thrumming low slung riffage. The reverberating final note of "Indicat" serves as the opening note for its follow up "Sabbath's Bell", do not however go thinking the word "sabbath" in the songs title is a signal for a period of Iommi-like refrains and swinging Ward like rhythms, this is not doom of the chugging proto variety this is achingly low and slow doom dressed up to the nines in dark swirling guitar solos and is vocally decorated in tones that are clean, one-dimensionally melodic and slightly ethereal. "Red Eyes Downer", a huge sounding opus, is next and boasts a groove that in its initial stages is so low slow and grainy that it almost obliterates the low key monotonic vocals that accompany it, things speed up a little as we reach the songs second half and although bassist Sara and drummer Lem's thunderous groove remains just as low and grainy they are no match for Epulyard's screaming lead work which cuts through their dense rhythmic backdrops like a hot knife through butter. Epulyard gets to grab the spotlight all to himself for next song "Curse of the Witches' Grave" by parping out an atmospheric keyboard piece that would be the perfect fit for for an Italian cult horror movie. There is an off-centred feel to penultimate number "Bed Tundy" maybe its the bands use of loud/quiet/loud dynamics or maybe its the stark contrast between its hazy clean and low in the mix vocals and its instrumental heaviness that gives the song its delicious unsettling feel, we don't know, what we do know though is that this is one hell of a tune! Tripping Haze Ceremony go big for the albums final number "Religious Rider", the band throwing in all the doomic tropes and cliches they have in their formidable arsenal, plus some unexpected moves, into a ten minute plus slice of deliriously dynamic doom that some of the world's more noted stoner doom would be envious of.
Tripping Haze Ceremony's "Indicat" is an album of low slow and heavy stoner doom as good as anything being put out by those noted European and American bands working in the same field. The fact that THC hail from a country that does not have such a high profile musically is nether here nor there because at the end of the day if the grooves are good it doesn't matter if you come from London or Timbuktu... and Tripping Haze Ceremony's grooves are kicking!
Check 'em out .....
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