A year after their amazing eighth full-length release the New York-based lords of heavy psych-fuzzy Sludge Doom Metal are back with their ninth massive instrumental opus.
A screenplay was written for a film about near-global extinction. Although the film has yet to be made, it inspired the band to write the soundtrack. And here it is, two twenty-minute long tracks with heavy music, driven by distorted guitar, the harmonic richness of the fuzzy guitars, the wah-wah induced fuzziness, the trembles of the whammy bar. And the formidable rhythm section that uses the bass drums and tom-toms frequently to widen the scope of the music. Adding to that we get the groovy fat, sometimes melodic bass guitar to soften the volleys of enthralling fuzzy music.
Throughout their ten years as recording artists, the members of Clouds Taste Satanic have shown they are visionary musicians soaked with knowledge of the history of this type of music. When the first riffs launch this album, Black Sabbath comes to mind. But knowing their music, it reaches far back to pre-Sabbath. It reaches back to the creative and musical outlet of such musicians as The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Blue Cheer´s anarchistic and loud take on hard rock with their amplified distortion oozing fuzzy and gritty heavy music. One might also hear a nod to early Cream? If we reach further back into the history of heavy music, we will find the Blues as another influence for what became Heavy Psych, Heavy Metal, and which eventually found its way to inspire the Acid Rock induced Stoner type of heavy music. More updated references might be early Pelican and Bongripper.
All that being said, Clouds Taste Satanic has its unique style and take on the styles and genres, but these influences give Clouds Taste Satanic a lot of range to develop its music and invent new avenues. As they have shown on a couple of albums, not at least 2023’s Tales of Demonic Possession , the band thrives when creating long tracks and when they can develop the music over the course of twenty minutes: The delicate shifts and turns, the calmer parts that exist between the rushes of mighty riffs, the melodic themes that run through some of the tracks’ movements, and the ability to make intricate music, pushing borders and not lose the listener along the way. It is utterly engaging all through - never one dull moment. Not only is the complexity of the music making it a captive listening experience, but it also makes you want to come back to the album time after time to discover the layers, to discover the hidden gems of sound effects and the subtle changes in the musical patterns.
Sabbath-like riffs open the first track ”Collision” supported by ponderous bass lines and drums. Desolate riffs search for a melodic theme to explore as the heavy rhythm section cuts a mighty canyon into the sonics. Two guitars drag along the prolonged riffs induced with some dissonance at the pace of the traditional doom. A higher-pitched guitar appears running parallel to the slow-moving music and the intricate ever-inventive musical journey is to commence. The music dips heavier, the riffs pick up, a fuzzy wah-wah appears. A guitar solo begins to ride along the dark substance of music flowing forward with subtle changes in pace. In one movement on the track, the fuzzy solo becomes intricate and melodic, as it pushes the heavy atmosphere of the music forward. It goes from the highest pitches to the lowest fuzzy tones. In one part of the track, the music contorts itself and becomes both tight and repetitive, in other parts it loosens up to let the bass run free with loads of groove, or a fuzzy high-pitched guitar is running forward with the engaging distorted music, always touching upon the track´s leitmotif. There are surges of unfinished crescendos and fuses where the music melts together. Toward the end, when you thought it could not swell further it still does as the guitar solo is soaring over the dense rhythmic music. It tightens into a heavy distorted crescendo.
The second track, ”Reclamation” has a touch of subdued take on the heavy music in my ears. At least at the sludgy heavy opening as a high pitched guitar rises in front of a heavy rhythm section seemingly searching for a lost chord, searching for a way to begin. It is an engaging, messy opening until it finds its direction. There are elongated riffs, sound effects from the guitars as the rhythm section slows down the pace. A guitar breaks into a high rising melody as the bass has found a base to pull the music onwards. The sonics develop with some dreamy aspect despite all the echoing fuzz on the guitars and the swirling in the higher branches. It seems as if it wants to reach something unreachable and by that becomes undecided. Had this not been such skilled musicians it could have been a messy, uninteresting opening part, but it is not. It seeps of unresolved redemption. Then the track changes into heavy repetitive riffs from all the instruments driving the song forward until its release: The music opens up with a parallel melodic fuzzy guitar until it goes back to the heavy dense soundscapes with bursts of fuzzy guitars that lead the way with the melodic bass and diverse drumming on top of it all.
The track constantly shifts between the theme of the powerful riffing and the bursts of the fuzzy guitar. The bass, in fact, holds the melody. There is a pause with prolonged sound effects from the guitars. The music becomes utterly energetic as it intensifies and lays the dense ground for the fuzz to playfully continue on in the midst of dense music. It is what heavy Stoner Metal is all about; tight rhythms, low-end bass, mighty riffs, anarchistic fuzzy guitars. The music explores heavy sounds and spills some sound effects while it gets slower, sludgier, and dirtier until the bass takes over accompanied by easy drumming that might be improvising around the melodic theme. Soon sound effects from the guitar begin to embrace the bass and the rhythm and a clear vibrato guitar appears with soft touches bending the notes.
The music pans out once more, the grooving bass holds the tempo as the harmonic richness of a fuzzy guitar appears in the foreground, warping, morphing, and spinning high and low just making for an engaging end to the tale of another awesome, heavy psych and sludgy dirty album from Clouds Taste Satanic (which on a footnote is one of the best band names to wear on one of their flamboyant t-shirts!).
