I gotta say that I am not that well versed in Russian metal. For such a vast country with such a huge impact on world history and culture, the red land has not made much of an impression on my listening habits.  Well this has been an attack on two fronts. You wait years for a big doomy big riffed Russian band and then two come along at once.

Both Megalith Levitation and Dekonstruktor offer up two tracks on this split and together make up 36 minutes which is longer than a lot of albums I have reviewed recently.

I will start with Megalith Levitation from Chelyabinsk – a city near the Ural Mountains in the Central West of Russia.  The area is famed with scientists as the site of a meteorite in 2013 which caused shockwaves and shattered glass and injured folks in the surrounding area. No wonder three blokes decided, three years later to form a Doom band that also seek to shake foundations with tales of occultism and magick! They released their debut “Acid Doom Rites” last year which was received well by the Doom and Stoner world making this split a real tasty treat.

First out of the traps like a Greyhound made of concrete and lead is Opium Ceremonies -. In fact, before I get into the music I gotta talk about the design of the cardboard fold out CD case. The art work by Godlikeicons is fantastic – a great mix of hellish pscychedelia and nightmare spacescapes. But…the font…. almost unreadable. The fact that my PC could not get the info meant a lot of searching before I had a hope of knowing the names of the tracks for both bands. Lyrics are supplied though in decipherable letters.

Opium Ceremonies is an incantation of sorts. Just four lines carried by a low rumbling bassline and tom thumped drums. This is the sound of a late-night ritual, folk in robes carrying torches calling forth monsters either from within their own minds or from the realms of folklore. The guitar line hints at the cosmos with choral tones which are added to by choral voices. Is this the initiation into some drug fuelled space cult?

If so sign me up!  SO now I am a member and wearing my robes with pride Megalith Levitation drop “Despair” on my head. Dark fuzzed up riffs the size of their local meteor shower bludgeon my head. The vocals continue in the same lamenting way of the first track, this time telling a tale of a gift of horses from Lucifer.  I am reminded of Sleep while drifting into the grandeur of this track. Giant riffs and a sway that picks you up and cradles you in its grizzled gnarled hands. There are changes of pace and moments of increased drama rather than continuous droning heaviness. Real dirty stoner Doom.

Dekonstruktor are from Moscow and this is their third split having also released two full lengths since their inception in 2014.  What these guys offer is a more underground raw sound but like their split brothers we are still in organic yet cosmic territory.

Beheaded Horizon is the first cut from the Muscovites and it brings to mind psychonauts Hawkwind with its use of a heavily edited micro riff that repeats and starts the journey off in a head fucking way. All 8 minutes sound like they are being squeezed out of a broken baby wah pedal – mushing like glowing play doh across my ears. In short I bloody love it. It’s heavy, droney, spacey, moss covered yet sling-shotting round a far flung star.

The ten minutes of Magma Pulse has hideous production. It sounds like it was recoded in an Anderson shelter on a Fisher Price tape recorder. But that just makes it even better. Oh shit I am starting to sound KVLT here but this is like a found tape recording – apart from the synth space sounds that pierce it sporadically that sound crystal clear.  This is utter filth. The sort of music that should be found on a railway siding and shared behind the bike sheds.  The guitar line is monotonous and reminiscent of raw basic black metal but with a pure filth doom/stoner riff backing it and the sounds from some ancient spacecraft in a 1950’s red menace propaganda sci fi film dropping in and out.  This is music to cos-play Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still to.

It ends with the sounds of nothingness – of total destruction or the void of space. Luvverly.

Well this split has given me a great education in just over half an hour. It appears that Russian stoner Doom is indeed – as the kids would say it – my jam!

(8/10  Matt Mason)

https://www.facebook.com/megalithlevitation

https://www.facebook.com/DEKONSTRUKTORzero

https://dekonstruktor.bandcamp.com/album/megalith-levitation-dekonstruktor

https://www.aestheticdeath.com/releases.php?mode=singleitem&albumid=4753