Cards on the table; despite advancing years and over 3 decades of gig going, I am more then capable of acting like an utter twat at a show. One such occasion was in 2011 when at the once inevitable Orange Goblin London Christmas gig, after opening before Gentlemans Pistols in a most excellent fashion, where they dedicated ‘Whisky Song’ to Ben Ward, I drunkenly harangued the band to play Hammerfest on the grounds “you’re Welsh”. Yep, I was that much of a dick folks, and I am honest enough to admit it. Since then, I’ve seen the band live, apologised, there has been a bit of a line up change, and I’ve been sent the new full length release, ‘Darkness Died Today’.
Three years have passed since the first LP ‘Return to Earth’, an album that I still listen to time and again despite the many other releases that clamour for my musical attention, and with the new offering the band have clearly matured, as well as recruiting the skills of engineer Richard Whittaker to allow the four piece to fulfil their recorded potential. ‘Dragging the Bones’ opens the album with an upbeat rocking stomp, laden with more hooks then a Cenobite’s utility belt, and demanding an immediate head banging surrender with, dare I say it, a Zeppelinesque vibe threading through the riff. ‘Guided by Mountains’ follows up, kicking its way out of the speakers with a confident bass line and lyrics that invoke Monster Magnet’s Dave Wyndorf at his trippiest, the song being a five and a half minute ode to faces in mushroom clouds that fades out into a wall of distortion. This same journey through space is enhanced by ‘Return to Earth’, where themes of interstellar travel and mysticism are built up with a wall of stoner riffing. Normally I’d type a review whilst listening to a track, but the urge to bang along to this excellent merger of drums, guitar, bass and vocals meant for once I had to turn off the player to continue writing. Please trust me when I say this is high praise indeed.
‘Godspeeder’ follows, with more then a hint of Clutch at their best in the deep repetitive riffing, the sound being initially lighter in ‘Tribe of the Old Oak’, the opening, jangly sound quickly surrendering to a musical bombardment of battered chords. For all the excellence of the rest of the album, it is with ‘Freedom Engines’ and ‘Sleeping With The Dogs’ that the band really shine, producing two of the best stoner metal tracks I’ve heard so far this year. Okay, it’s only April, but with the number of albums I get through, that is no mean feat. ‘Freedom Engines’ has a wall of distorted fuzzy guitar that only compliments, rather then overwhelms the vocals and other instruments, whilst the album closes with just shy of a 7 minute swaggering THC laden battering.
I was lucky enough to get this album download sent to me free of charge for review. Despite having several thousand CDs already and trying to trim back my collection, I WILL be buying the hard copy, and charging to any live Sigirya show I can. I find it hard to offer a greater compliment then that folks.
(9/10 Spenny)
29/04/2014 at 10:26 pm
Just to let you know, I didn’t lie. I am now the happy owner of the digipack CD, and if the red card left by the ninja postie is anything to go by, the t-shirt is at the sorting office.