If you’re not yet familiar with Poseidon, then I think it is time you changed that, and ‘Prologue’ may well be the album to help you. Developing from the single track ‘Omega’ that was released over a year ago, the band have clearly been away, writing, practising, and honing their craft, the result being a right old stunner.
Opener ‘The Beginning The End The Colony’ shows the band are ready to batter all before them with a wall of feedback and drone that develops into the sort of sonic juggernaut that Electric Wizard once drove, looping slabs of heaviness crashing from the speakers like a land slide mutated into a 13 minute musical assault. Throw into the mix darkly psychedelic effects warped vocals and Poseidon have set themselves a benchmark that they surely cannot keep up to on the rest of the album?
Wrong, wrong, wrong! Rather than simply blast the listener with a non-stop tsunami of fuzz, the band take an entirely unexpected change of direction with ‘Mother Mary Son of Scorn’, a dark acoustic number that mixes a Gothic feeling with the bleak country of Cash or Wino from his solo work. If you think a wall of amps, heavy strings, and down-tuned Gibsons are the only way to create an atmosphere of Doom, prepare to be educated and inspired to broaden your horizons.
‘Chainbreaker’ sees Poseidon plug into their Marshall stacks again, blanketing the listener beneath a thick layer of all things sludge, front man Matthew Bunkell giving his vocal chords a workout as the lyrics are delivered alternately in his own fey style and then in gut wrenching groans. The words, however, are very much a supplement to music which dominates with its intensity.
The album finishes with a relaunch of their original 2015 taster ‘Omega’, an epic 16 minute lesson in intensity that starts with the terrifying speech of Michael Parks’ pitch perfect study in insane charisma that was Abin Cooper from the movie ‘Red State’, a performance that if delivered in any film other than a low budget horror tribute would have earned Oscar nods. To accompany his tour de force performance, Poseidon craft a piece of black light dark Prog that builds up chord by drawn out chord into a massive apocalyptic track that would be the centrepiece of any future performance by the band.
With ‘Prologue’ Poseidon have mixed disparate elements of Sludge, Stoner, Doom, Prog, and even Country, and rather than create a mess, they’ve forged a new and exciting musical amalgam. With more shows surely to come, and what must be growing confidence, ‘Prologue’ can only be a sign of good things to come, and if the band continue to develop and mature, I can only wonder what sonic alchemy they will produce in the future.
(8.5/10 Spenny)
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