Andrew Danso

Back from a temporary hiatus, the two-piece return to explore their complex doom-rock. The band are now onto a third release, continuing to produce unpredictable material. Elegant and fast paced in sections, slow and dreamy in others; there’s a distinct character in their dimensional sound.

Festival Of The Horned God sees the band in fine form. Despite the two-piece settled on a conspiracy theory involving the Pope (the name National Sunday Law is the name of that very conspiracy theory) they’re a clever duo when it comes to song structures and rockability. They’re able to work outside of the genres comfort zone - occasionally using synths and vocoders – which along with the doom tag, gives their sound a unique complexion.

So, while you have the guitars and drums hammering away, you also have an ethereal quality in their sound. The vocal vocodes into harmonies, the synth sometimes doubles up on the guitar chords, and the guitar runs through a multitude of effects; huge reverbs are often used, with massive delays of cheesy acoustic strings ringing in the background. It makes for a big impressionable sound.

What makes Festival Of The Horned God stand apart from NSLs previous outings, is that the band are now going wherever they want, whenever they want in their songs. They’ll just speed up and slow down when they feel like it. It somehow stays coherent. It’s a confusing experience but not over the top. You’ll be dizzy after the ride, but remember what the sign-posts looked like.

The EPs opening tune is full of urgency, veering into the melodramatic through the use of synth and big piano notes - similar to a Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor production colluding with Cynic. It’s a big and weighty sound, that’s perhaps meant to be engaged with rather than headbanged too.

The EPs final track, Preservation In Stone, chugs along in an awkward Virus vibe. It’s discordant and constantly wrestling with itself to find a steady rhythm. The tune is given a hard edge through the duos vocal performance. The vocal is mixed at around the same volume as the guitars and drums, and when they both shout, it sounds like they’re trying to sledgehammer their way through a thick wall of sound.

At their best, NSL demonstrate how doom can evolve – indeed, perhaps how it is evolving.  Before you’d have bought a progressive record and doom record separate, for different experiences. The progressive record would be for the beard-stroking intellectual, the doom record, perhaps for those as high as a kite when wanting to rock out. The choice has now been made unnecessary. This particular rendition lets us have our progressive-doom cake, and eat it.

http://nationalsundaylaw.bandcamp.com/

A tune from my latest EP, Find, is available for free on Psychonavigation's bandcamp page. There's a good lot to be had, with eighteen other contributions.

Roll on 2013!

They might sound like Sabbath, grimy and stoner like, but Trippy Wicked roar into life on their self titled track Going Home. It's an indication of what the album feels like. Yes, the production might reflect earlier times but "Going Home" is an energetic affair, flirting with the Sabbath sound and rocking like Queen's of The Stone Age.

Similar to their record labels first release “Stubb”, Going Home is an album characterised by imperfections. The choppy takes of vocalist Peter Holland, make for a raw performance, sometimes hitting the notes, and sometimes just growling through a riff. It keeps everything focused in a vintage era, even when the riffing occasionally veers into the modern and progressive. 

The more subtle, proggy moments, help them avoid pastiche and with the greatest intentions, set them apart from what's kicking around in the underground. That's not to say there's nothing derivative throughout the record. Quite the contrary; the stoner love-in has been echoed countless of times for better and for worse.

Trippy Wicked are in love with the Sabbath theme, and the rock-rebellion lifestyle that might come with it. If you sample "Going Home's" tracks, “I want Another Drink”, and “Pour Me Another One”, they're written about times that are cliched within the genre. That's fair enough, after all the very genre to express emotions about being stoned is in something 'stoner', but it might be more interesting if the three-piece wrote while being inebriated, instead of documenting the process while being sober.

Ultimately, Trippy Wicked have an album alight in production, but stuttering in content. It makes for an album that's only half full.

Breezy, effortless, flow, these are the kind of adjectives immediately thought of were Torche‘s music is concerned. The four-piece interchange through pop, progressive, and doom genres with a clear fluidity - it’s fascinating to hear the genres put side by side. It is unusual (perhaps less so nowadays) to have genres of music drenched in counter-culture work alongside a populist format.

“Harmonicraft” is a relatively pretty picture. The verses and choruses are often lead by a vocal harmony of sorts, steering close to pop rock, in the veins of Weezer and Blink 182. Outside of its pop traits, this is a far more artsy experience, with sounds panning across the mix, the guitars finding a lower string to rattle on, and the vocal fluttering into a dreamy synthesis of harmony.

7/10 Powerplay Issue #143

Industrial metal reflects a kind of mood, more so than a checklist for specific musical elements (Scandinavian metal ALWAYS contains vocal, drums, and guitar riffing around the minor pentatonic scale), and Nachtblut work in that somewhat drab, chrome-coloured Rammstein vibe. Apart from a more ‘Abbath Occulta’ (lead vocalist for Immortal) vocal performance, “Dogma” stays tight to Rammstein's industrial watermark. Nachtblut’s guitars chug like Rammstein, their vocal growls in German, and they have a slick production for the record to roll along in.

Obviously for these comparisons to have been drawn, “Dogma” is by far a detailed reflection on the Rammstein template. It’s accomplished with a degree of accuracy that’s convincing, while being able to hold onto an identity of its own.

7/10 Powerplay Issue #143