ALTAR OF THE FUZZ ~ COLOSSAL SUNN ENGULFED EARTH .... review

 

Canada's Altar of the Fuzz, Trey Graham (guitar); Caine Albright (bass/vocals) and Isaac McConkey (drums) are a relatively young band in terms of existence but in their short time together they have managed to put out a considerable output. Since their 2022  inception the band have managed to release three full length albums, "V" (2023), "Buffalo Haze" (2024) and "Their Skies Were Lost Gods" (2024), as well as a number of well received EP's and singles. Altar of the Fuzz have become chiefly known for jamming instrumental grooves of a spacious and heavy persuasion but their latest EP "Colossal Sunn Engulfed Earth" sees the band also experimenting with some vocal flavouring.

"Colossal" opens Altar of the Fuzz's latest musical endeavour and it could not be a better named opus, not only does it span a whopping eleven minutes and three seconds but it also sounds COLOSSAL. The guitar work here is a Gilmour-esque merging of searing drawn out notes, crunching riffage and spacious ringing arpeggios that is is backed by a superbly delivered mix of growly and liquid bass work and a truly impressive blend of thunderous and shimmering percussion. The song takes you on a journey in a way that all good instrumentals should, the music swelling to enormous heights one moment then flattening out to become a trickle the next, atmosphere is a must in music of this nature and this track is drenched in the stuff. Next up is "Sunn", musically this song comes across like a coming together of Elder, Pink Floyd and OM with the OM part of the equation mostly being found in the "weedian" like nature of its vocals which are delivered in a mantra like throaty gargle. The brief but intriguing "Engulfed" has a distant and otherworldly feel, the sort  of musical piece that could easily work as the soundtrack to a space horror movie, something in the vein of  "Event Horizon" or "Pandorum". For the albums penultimate number, "Earth", Altar of the Fuzz basically take Black Sabbath's "Children of the Grave" riff and give it a space rock makeover and maaaan do they make a good job of it, if this had been played at Ozzy's final gig it would have brought the roof down. The final song of the album "Ton 618" blends sampled space themed narrative and swirling bluesy guitar over spacious musical backdrops before fading out on a wave of hazy cosmic jive.  

Altar of the Fuzz's "Colossal Engulfed Sunn Earth" is everything you could possibly ask for from music pitched at the more cosmic end of the metal spectrum, a collection of spacious, heavy and atmospheric tunes that'll take your mind to places your body could never hope to visit. 

Check it out .....

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