Labels: Tee Pee
Review by: Alex Deller
Reviewing this record presents something of an awesome problem. How the hell do you review something so powerfully sublime? Something as elemental as water or the very air you breathe? When “Jerusalem’ dropped just shy of a decade ago the benchmark for monolithic, weed-addled doom was set so high that there was little point in even trying to compete. Fifty-two minutes of mesmerising sonic oblivion that bowed to nothing but the blissful union of the leaf and the almighty riff.
And now this. Not just a long-overdue vinyl release of said opus, but an earlier, heavier version with an extra fifteen minutes or so woven in. Surely a gift from whatever gods this was a hymn unto.
So back to the original problem: what to say? That the loping riff starting proceedings and finds itself a mainstay throughout is a piece of pure, creaking genius? That the initial juddering drums are like the cracked hooves of demonic steeds bearing some hollow-eyed harbinger of the apocalypse? Or simply that Al Cisneros’ voice seems as though it could raze cityscapes to the ground with just one exhalation? This is a mantra to end them all, and mere words are not enough. All that’s left to do is close your eyes, inhale, and let the riff claim you”¦