Firstly, let me say sorry; I fear that with this review I will bring down on my head the wrath of any dyed in the wool hardcore metal fan reading this site, and for that I apologise. However, I must evoke the memory of Pink Floyd, since after multiple listening’s to the new album by Domovoyd, ‘Oh Sensibility’ on Svart Records, that is what keeps elbowing its way to the front of my consciousness. I know for some readers, namely those who can only think of the rather turgid and slow later Floyd years of ‘The Division Bell’ when the band became a byword for boredom and self-indulgence, that the words Pink Floyd are positively on a blasphemous level similar to Simon Cowell, but I urge you to have faith in this website and not click away, but instead read on. Rather, I must remind the reader of the halcyon days when the band were cutting edge masters of the wall of sound, and produced such epics as ‘Atom Heart Mother’, ‘Meddle’, and ‘Ummagumma’, for that is the atmosphere that Domovoyd’s new album ‘Oh Sensibility’ creates for me when it comes tripping out of my speakers! So, if you haven’t tutted and logged off, please, continue.
For a few years now, Domovoyd have been plying their self-financed trade in heavy psychedelia via bandcamp (check out the download links below), and indeed, their back catalogue is available from that site for free, but I would encourage you to hit the button that allows you to give them a contribution in this day and age of ripping and copying. However, the band has now been signed to Svart Records, a label that with their signing of the likes of Brutus and Victor Griffin’s In Graved this has been punching well above their weight this year, and have a full length album available to buy. And what an album it is; only 6 tracks long, but timing out at over a substantial 50 minutes, you will appreciate it is not some quick fix of 3 minute social media friendly pop tracks, rather an album that allows the band to wander and explore their own self generated sonic world.
At just shy of 3 minutes long, or in the modern parlance, a number 1 chart single length, the functionally named and suitably trippy ‘Introduction’ sets the tone for the album, the outer void bound reverb of assorted detuned instruments and feedback instantly evoking an age of lava lamps, flares, kaftans, and introspection. ‘Incarnation’ follows, with a harder doom tinged riff and distorted vocals that reinforce the retro atmosphere that the band has been so faithfully promoting, a sound laden with hypnotic riffs that had my head involuntarily and unconsciously swaying throughout. ‘By Taking Breath’ continues the journey into inner space and outer dimensions, a nine and a half minute trip into the void where each member of the band gets to explore their instrument to its fullest.
For track after track, it is the musicianship and atmosphere created by walls of distortion melded with laid back percussion and bass that dominate the album, vocals and lyrics being just a simple contrast to the sound created by musicians who are clearly comfortable to just chill out and explore their sonic landscape with a combination of skill and stoner sensibility. Whilst ‘Lamia’ may stray into the harder Electric Wizard realms of the form, the album’s two closers, ‘Effluvial Condenser’ and ‘Argenteum Astrum’, at 30 minutes between them, truly demonstrate the THC and LSD influences of the band.
All the way through, the album is a homage to psychedelic musicianship, and live, I could not imagine anyone pitting away unless they were struck by a combination of crack, insanity, and a 50,000 volt lightning strike. Instead this is music to just lean back to and absorb as it carries you away into the astral void; very early Floyd.
(8/10 – Spenny)
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