Some artists, some performers,
just have “it”.
That ability to take
something that many other people are doing, but make it their own.
Put their own individual stamp on it.
That is exactly what
Megaton Leviathan
do with this release.
They bring us the
doom, heavy as, well, a leviathan, but with their own unique twists to it.
This is music that you want to listen to over
and over and lose yourself in what you hear.
Opening track “Past 21” is a
great example.
The song starts out as
cold and sparse as an arctic plain, white out in every direction.
You don't know where to turn, you don't know
which direction to go, because everything is cold and white as far as the eye
can see.
But as the music builds, there
are some very cool psychedelic touches that come into earshot.
There is instrumentation that you don't
necessarily expect to hear in this kind of track.
And you start to feel a little warmth, a
little hope, that maybe this isn't as bleak as you first thought.
“The Foolish Man” is the next
track up, and again brings us some unexpected sounds.
This time it is a sitar winding its way
through the track and bringing all the far out associations of that instrument.
Another track that builds and builds.
I love the style of doom this band
plays.
It gives me what I call “the
nod”.
The music, the riffs are
repetitive, there's a little bit of a drone going on under all the layers, and you
can close your eyes and nod your head and explore the music in different ways.
There really isn't much
conventional doom on this whole release.
Maybe the the last 3 minutes of “Arctic Cell”, when the band locks into a
crushing, fuzzed out riff and rides it for all its worth through the end of the
song, but that's about it.
The great
curve ball comes on the 4
th and final track, “Here Come The
Tears”.
Sung it a clean style, lyrics
very clearly pronounced, and a pretty straight forward, almost ballad
arrangement.
Until about halfway through,
when the doom drops like Thor's hammer.
This is a great release, full of
unexpected things in all the right places.
It feels like a mountain of doom about to fall on you and crush you into
insignificance, only to break apart at the last second and shower you with
pebbles.
It's cold, it's warm, it's a
little weird at times.
Best of all, it
works all the time.
- ODIN
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