If you’ve not yet caught this act, a quick scan of my music collection shows that Domovoyd have so far let loose upon the world their rather good ‘Mythonaut’ EP, 2012’s ‘Mammoth’, and debut long player ‘Oh Sensibility’, all well worth seeking out and easily available via their bandcamp page. Now in 2015, Finland’s own explorers of the sonic wastelands have launched via cult label (and no, I did not mean “kvlt”) Svart their second full length assault on the unconscious, the self titled ‘Domovoyd.’ In suitably epic style, the album starts with with the massive near seventeen minute ‘Domovoyage’, a darkly distorted string section like Satan’s own chamber orchestra dragging out the cries of the damned with every scrape of their bows, a veritable cacophony of the darkly psychedelic that lurks beyond. If you want a simple hook laden head-banging pit starter of an album, I think you should look elsewhere; if, however, you are willing to be taken on a voyage through the void, grab your seat and strap in. A massive wall of distorted and effects driven guitars follow the strings, their own hellish screams being supported by a fusillade of bass and drums that halfway through the track briefly fades out into a stark solo guitar break before all the instruments join together in a battering gallop to support bitterly spat vocals. This massive track, deserving of its own EP and review, is the sort of massive number a young Hawkwind could have blasted out over an oil lamp light show, but only if Lemmy had spiked the others acid with a dose of CIA grade speed!
‘Ambrosian Perfume’ offers little respite from the aural battering, the fuzzed out opening bass line rattling speakers and fillings alike before being joined by swirling guitars that support lyrics delivered like a Jaz Colman polemic where harshly barked lines grow into a snarling scream. Once again, I cannot stress enough that this is not a track that is ever likely to get airplay on all but the most underground of stations, and is parsecs away from being single friendly radio fodder, but for my money, it is all the better for it, almost daring the listener to dive into a white water whirlpool of sound. By comparison, ‘Caustic Afterglow’, ‘Mystagogue’ and ‘Amor Fati’ (‘Love of Fate’, according to what remains in my brain of a 30 year out of date Latin ‘O’ level) positively whip past, if only in length, if not in pace. ‘Caustic Afterglow’ provides a wailing background of music to accompany a spoken lysergic eulogy, a dark descendant of Jim Morrison’s poetic performances, whilst ‘Mystagogue’ plays with a doom laden fuzz that many wish Electric Wizard could still conjure up live.
Closing the album, and again deserving of its own EP and review is the equally epic ‘Vivid Insanity’; just when I thought Domovoyd might have scaled all the peaks of Mount Freakout, it turns out they had just reached a plateau, and this number represented a final, chaos reigned journey to the summit. At first, a gentle, almost tranquil opening groove at first creeps forth with a Grateful Dead vibe, although always in the background there is a lurking bleakness, promising that there is so much more to come, the beats building in urgency, any lightness being washed aside in a tidal wave of sludge laden volume that eventually fades into a wall of feedback.
Domovoyd is still a young band, but one with a mature and experimental sound that shows they are willing to explore their music to the fullest, irrespective of fashion and trend. I’ve been lucky enough to hear their sound develop, but if this is your first introduction to the band, it’s a bloody good one.
(8.5/10 Spenny)
08/05/2015 at 8:35 am
More listens and this album just keeps getting more immense; a definite contender for my top 10 of the year.