CENTER OF THE EARTH ~ AS ABOVE, SO BELOW ...review

There are a lot of things you can do in twenty minutes, some of them legal, some of them illegal, some of them pleasurable, some of them not so much, today we are bringing you something that sits very much in the legal and pleasurable range and one you need only to use your ears for. The twenty minutes we invite you to indulge yourself in today comes in the form of two humongous tracks of weighty groove brought to you by a Danish combo going by the name Center of the Earth, Aksel Brammer (drums); Frederik Holm (guitar/vocals); Jesper Laugmann (guitar/vocals) and Sebastian Wilsleff (bass). Now some of you may remember Desert Psychlist waxing lyrical on the merits of the both the bands "Tolkion" album and its follow up "Mars" on these pages and we are going to be no less complimentary when discussing the two tracks that make up the bands latest release "As Above, So Below".

First of the two epic sized tracks is "Slope Dealer", it begins with a sedate slightly off-kilter guitar and bass combination then, when the drums join in, morphs into the sort of "out there in the cosmos" jam that many bands might have chosen to finish a song rather than place near the start of one. As the piercing guitar solos,  growling bass motifs and hell for leather drumming subside the song then settles into a low, slow and extremely weighty stoner doom groove decorated in drawn out and grizzled vocal tones that tell "weedian" flavoured tales of "giants and witches on melting ridges" before musically returning to the soaring psychedelic jamming that was part of the songs origins, it's spectacular stuff! Track two, "Black Knight Sattelite"  is no less impressive either musically, vocally or lyrically, although Desert Psychlist does need to admit to having to google the meanings of the words "aeonic" and "enochian", and that we are still a little unclear as to what an "Antarctic command conduit" is or actually does. Musically this is a song with it roots buried deep in stoner-doom soil, a lurching lumbering beast of a tome built on thick dank reverberating guitar and bass refrains supported by some of the slowest yet busiest drumming you are likely to find in this genre ever. Vocals here are a mixture of grizzled lead and dual harmonies but to call them harmonies is probably pushing things too far as the sound those voices make together is more akin to two bears roaring for dominance over a carcass than anything approaching melodic, but that's ok because they are the perfect fit for lumbering gait of the dark and dank grooves surrounding them. Despite the songs lurching nature there are moments of relief to be found here one of which occurs when all the bluster falls away and the band lurch into a doomic blues groove, but its only a brief moment and overall this is doom at its most insidious and menacing, which is just the way most of us in this scene like our doom to be. 

Center of the Earth's previous release, "Mars", saw the band  dipping their toes into more lysergic waters and experimenting with elements and textures of post-metal and space however for this release they have returned to their heavy roots, those textures and elements still in place but this time a little less obvious. Whether the band will ever return to the more experimental approach they toyed with on "Mars" only time will tell but until then lets just enjoy the crushing. lumbering heaviness that the two tracks that make up "As Above, So Below" so expertly deliver. 

Check it out ....      

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