Dead Shrine- Cydonia Mensa (Kozmik Artifactz)

Dead Shrine is a side project of Craig (Arc of Ascent, Lamp of the Universe) and more similar to Arc but with a bit more of a stoner influence while Arc is more in the SLEEP vein.   This is the 2nd album under this name. 

Track List:

1. Serpents of the Sun 4:27
2. Cydonia Mensa 5:41
3. Scared Light 4:40
4. Monuments 6:19
5. Temple of Saturn 5:06
6. Redeemer 4:07
7. Evolution Garden 4:27
8. Illumination Through Knowledge 7:51

Serpents of the Sun starts with a very doomy riff and then a groove kicks followed by a john Garcia inspired vocal. The title track is next and slows things down quite a bit. Nice guitar parts and backing vocals as well as this just is slow and stoned. Sacred Light continues in the same vein with powerful vocals in perfect sync with the heavy groove. Monuments has a slow fade up and then a riff you have heard on a lot of doom records, kicks in but this one is a bit more distorted and nasty and the chants at the beginning remind you of LOTU.  I feel like Craig already wrote this one before?? Temple of Saturn is more of stoner rocker but with the same fuzzy but less doomy guitar.  Redeemer is another mid paced heavy fuzzy, groove rocker.  Passionate vocals, stoned groove. Love the nasty wah solo on this one. Evolution starts off with acoustic and electric solo guitar in a more tranquil space, similar to Lamp of the Universe space. Illumination through Knowledge starts with some organ and synth sweeps before the monster riffs kick in. This one has a lot more going on and is a bit more spacey and a great way to end this record. 

If you like your stoner doom (hard to do something totally unique in this genre now) straight forward killer riffing, great solos, powerful vocals and cool lyrics, this is a a great adventure. Only 200 copies on vinyl so get it soon…

https://deadshrinenz.bandcamp.com/

https://kozmik-shop.com/ 

Minerall- Strömung (Sulatron st-2501)

This is the 2nd release by this new jam band from Germany, featuring Dave Schmidt (Sula Bassana). The background on the album was written by Dave:


“On January 27 and 28 in 2023 three musicians from three of the most creative psych bands in the german-speaking world came together for a session at Buffbergen Studios in Hanover. Birthdays were celebrated and hours upon hours of music were recorded.  Through a broad spectrum of common ideas, the jams range from hard riffs to spherical ambient soundscapes and enchant not least through the interplay of these 3 experienced musicians. From these sessions Sulatron released the debut LP „Bügeln“ in January 2024, which has sold out already.  And on the new long player „Strömung“ we can hear other jams from that weekend the band has selected, and Sula mixed them nicely for 2 sidelong journeys.”

The album starts with the 19 min Strömung. A steady groove is laid down and off we go, first with a quite simple melodic guitar line and then more delay and effects is added and then the energy level of the rhythm section takes it a notch up and Marcel starts to space out more on the guitar and move from rhythms to lead mode and this takes you on a journey for quite some time…  What can I say, they have a great chemistry and it is a good ride.. Welle starts off more spacey in another 20min album side track. It gets really droney and trippy in the middle.. Far out..  Another cool record….

The band is:  Marcel Cultrera (SPECK): Guitar, fx, spaceecho, Tommy Handschick (KOMBYNAT ROBOTRON, EARTHBONG): Drums, and Dave Schmidt aka Sula Bassana (ZONE SIX, INTERKOSMOS, ex ELECTRIC MOON etc.): Bass, fx, Synthesizer. 


https://minerall.bandcamp.com/album/str-mung 

htttp://sulatron.com 

IAH- V (Kozmik Artifactz)

I have to say I have never heard of these guys before by they are an Argentinian instrumental band but based on the name of the album, I guess this is their 5th release.  The album features 5 tracks between 6 and 10mins and then one short one. It starts off with a spacey intro that leads into Kutno.  After the intro, the riffing and drums really build up with a heavy riff but sort of dreamy post rock like keys work giving it this melodic element. After a while, the heavy riff ends and they go into this very spacey melodic section.  Madre de los Superiois follows with some heavy riffs and melodic elements and a bit more of a slow headbanger with a bit of a guitar solo at the end. Yaldabaoth has a spacey guitar intro with a lot of reverb and then the heavy shit begins! The riff is quite simple and repeated a bit (miss a guitar solo).  Sono oi is a short piece that reminds me of Mono.  Sentado en el …. brings back the heavy dramatic riffing and grooves.  This one really kicks ass though when it takes off. Great riff and groove. It has a quiet ending though.  Las Palabras y el Mar starts a bit dark and mysterious with some keyboards. It has a lot of dynamics this last track. Although, I am not a real fan of this kind of music but these guys do it really well. I get bored with the pad keys and the same sort of melodic lines that are used by many bands in the genre. It is really hard to come up with something totally unique today especially in this genre. If you like these bands like My Sleeping Karma, Pelican, etc.. you will most likely dig this.. Good job guys..

The band is:  Juan Pablo Lucco Borlera: Bass , Mauricio Condon: Guitar & Synths and José Landín: Drums. 

https://kozmik-shop.com/ 

https://iahbanda.bandcamp.com/album/v