Friday 10 January 2014

Queen Elephantine - Scarab - Album Review

Scarab cover art

Album Type: Full Length
Release Date: 06/2013
Label: Heart & Crossbone Records
Scarab, track list:

1 Intro/Through the Barricades
2 Forced to the Ground
3 Pile of Corpses
4 Remains of Wars
5 At the Eastern Shores
6 Grandiose Visions
7 Death Brigade
8 In the Warfield Storms
9 Night of Revenge

Queen Elephantine is:

Mat Becker : b. guitar
Indrayudh Shome : e. guitar
Ian Sims : drumset
Nathanael Totushek : drumset
Srinivas Reddy : tanpura/swarm
Brett Zweiman : slide guitar/divine mosquito

Review:

Now four full length albums into their fluid career, Queen Elephantine are an enigma. Formed in 2006 in Hong Kong, transplanted to New York in 2007; Indrayudh Shome is the only original member left. He does, however maintain the heart and soul of the band. 

They have been labeled as “doom”, I’m not sure that fits. They are a doom band in the sense of drone, I guess. The sitar and percussive elements are more meditative (and not new age bullshit) and trance like. The Eastern influence is so radically different from the down tuned, ham-fisted bashing that even my band succumb to; it’s really hard to describe Queen Elephantine in any way other than, “you should find some herb, turn the lights down low and drift, drift… drift”

If you are in a funeral doom kind of mood or if you are seeking another astral plain; these four tracks will fill that hole in your existence!


Written by Ransome Note

Thanks to Kunal Choksi and Heart & Crossbone Records for sending us a promo to review.