Third release from German four-piece Obelyskkh sees a refinement in their usually self-indulgent droning to something much sharper and, while still heavily infused with psychedelia, there are some suffocatingly crushing riffs at work, lifting the record out of the murky depths of doom and into newer, almost thrashy, territory.
10-minute colossal opener and title track is a delicate progression towards belting, thick and sludgy guitars overlapped by airy melodies and a dreamlike atmosphere. Meeting next song ‘The Ravens’ is a head-on collision and is a much more unforgiving musical endeavour. The vocals are full of spite and the string work utterly relentless, finally descending into a Slavic sounding chant and heavily produced sounding instruments, followed by a chilling piano piece that leads the track towards its finish.
There is no doubt that ‘Hymn to Pan’ is full of interesting ideas, however, it’s the structure and selection of them that is to the detriment of the band – with closing track ‘Revelation: The Will to Nothingness’ clocking in at 20 minutes it’s more of a test of endurance than a listening experience and is incredibly trying on patience. It almost feels like the band have just tried to see how much they can cram onto one record rather than selecting what sounds best and using it to carefully create and structure songs.
With a bit of self-restraint Obelyskkh have the potential to be a genuine star of the doom metal genre, instead they are being left by the wayside by falling for the old and stale idea that every song durations needs to be close to double figures.
(7/10 Angela Davey)
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