It can’t be easy for any band practicing dark rites in deepest Russia right now and apart from a look to check they are not preaching warmongering politics we have to give them a pass without any form of prejudice. All that the trio of hooded and for pretty obvious reasons anonymous players from Chelyabinsk Oblast have seemed to want to do over three albums and a split with Dekonstruktor is worship at the altar of low-end fuzz via the medium of psychedelic doom. Here it’s a case of being our guiding ever burning fire, walking through the cold forest in the moonlight and being doomed to wander in the cells of time. Some of their lyrical output thus quoted it’s time to submerge ourselves into the heady of fragrance of their music, be warned things could all get rather trippy.

Deep bass twangs as the musicians stolidly pluck at instruments and the drums rumble in with a low brooding ballast. Clean and ceremonial chants waft in the background and our reverential hosts have us shuffling along as they rise from their diamond tombs with a treasure that may not be rare but is bound to be precious to some. It’s a case of digging in for repetitive rhythms and long elongated tones here over the five presented tracks. The album actually flows with nary a pause and is best confronted as one piece of music, perhaps that is why the track titles kind of run in a sort of formation and everything has us literally ‘Descending,’ ‘Into The Depths,’ ‘Of Eternal Doom.’

Those versed in the arcane spells of Electric Wizard and their chemically altered ilk will be very much at home here. Production is suitably dense and this is guaranteed to rumble the rafters and have your speakers quaking perhaps due to what I suspect are the limited opportunities of playing it to a live audience. It’s very easy to lose yourself in the depths, not of the abyss perhaps but the mines of your mind as you prospect treasure and the serpentine melodies uncoil and warp like the bastard child of early Hawkwind. The band may have levitation in their name but this is more a case of early 70’s ‘Paranoia’ inducing stuff with the distorted reverberations of Krautrock as its granite slabbed coating. With what is described as thunderbass & еclectic double bass it’s KKV who creates the biggest sonic rumbles, by comparison vocalist SAA’s parts are hymnal and sit back with a devotional finesse and there are lengthy periods where you can simply concentrate on the instrumental elements whilst your brain slowly stews and simmers away. At 2:24s ‘Descending’ works as short craggy descent into the second half of the album which by complete contrast culminates with the epic stygian 13:44s conclusion ‘Of Eternal Doom.’ This is not however an album to particularly dissect in a track-by-track way, you’ll be too busy hanging on through the lofty low, slow blizzard of riffs with your brain trying to cope with the onset of doom dementia.

This is either an album you are going to tune in and turn on to or one you are going to find as exciting as watching paint dry. The methodical approach is somewhat obtuse and there is no middle ground to be found here. The madder you are, the better no doubt and you can always gaze into the psychedelic artwork of the cover and booklet whilst you listen and attempt to reach a higher level of consciousness. Be warned though, head may go “boom” in the process.

(7.5/10 Pete Woods)

https://www.facebook.com/megalithlevitation

https://megalithlevitation.bandcamp.com/album/obscure-fire

https://www.aestheticdeath.com/releases.php?mode=singleitem&albumid=5735