MEGALITH LEVITATION – Obscure Fire
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Russian psychedelic acid doom sludge metal trio Megalith Levitation is back at it again. When the band released their debut album Acid Doom Rites in 2019, they had four sprawling tracks over nearly eighty minutes running time. The following Void Psalms, out two years later, also had four tracks, but they only made it a little over fifty minutes. On their third longplayer Obscure Fire, the guys offer five new songs that don’t even make it to three quarters of an hour. Does this mean that Megalith Levitation have become more commercial? Certainly not! Their songs are just somewhat more compact, running between seven and fourteen minutes, except for the short Descending in the middle which stays under three minutes. The music is still very slow-paced, crawling like lava through your speakers. The guitar varies between down-tuned doom riffs and higher pitched, more melodic playing, which works very well, as the bass guitar, played through a whole range of effects, makes sure that the bottom notes are always well covered. In fact, the album feels like one long piece of music, as the songs are usually segueing quite elegantly one into the other. Especially the two longer songs that make it over ten minutes use their time to build up tension, before, like on Of Silence, ending on an incredibly psychedelic guitar part. This can also be observed on the fourteen minute long Of Eternal Doom which is closing the album. Often doom metal bands are relying solely on slow and heavy rhythms, but Megalith Levitation are taking it all a few steps further. The vocals are not rough, but instead have a conjuring quality which fits well with the band’s monk’s habits that they are wearing on promo photos and in live settings. The psychedelic component allows for acid and stoner influences, but never overdoing it to become a farce. While I was awed by the trio’s expansive debut album, I enjoy their more concise Obscure Fire even more. It’s a hypnotic and unrelenting exercise in slow-motion metal that never lacks charisma. When it comes to extreme doom metal, few bands can play on this high level. |
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5 songs |
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42:27 minutes |
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***** *** |
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Genre: acid doom sludge metal Labels: |
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