Album Type:
Album
Date Released:
August 2nd
2014
Label:
Self Released
Zothique –
Tracklisting
1.The Shadow of
Linxia（临夏的阴影)
10:39
2.Hypnotic
Kaleidoscope 10:09
3.AMOY 11:35
Bio
ZOTHIQUE is a
psychedelic sludge metal quartet formed in 2011 in Tokyo, JAPAN by
former members of the hideous crust punk outfits,
Holy&Blight. ZOTHIQUE has been developing their unique blend of
dirty sludge-crust riffage, psychedelic
synthe-noise insanity and surreal lyrical vision with collages of
bizarre soundscape that evokes disturbing time-space
distortion. While they pull the range of obvious influence from bands
like Ufomammut or The Doors, one describes their
music as sort of bad tripped jamming by High on Fire with Hawkwind at
the suicide forest.
However, ZOTHIQUE
has so far failed to comfortably fit any of those reputation much
thanks to the band's sonic-crazed keyboardist/noise
generator Kenji Kuroda, who's been involved with countless of other
projects, sessions and bands over the decades as
keybordist, singer, noise artist, composer,and sound engineer
including manic souled psyche-funk outfits Clippen
Repone and his own industrial acid jazz project known as Darklaw. His
enigmatic musical output sways from acid zonked
prog-rock to the aggressively twitched freaked-out noise roars from
the deepest basement of tokyo.
Their debut EP
released from Grindcorekaraoke.com and following first album
"Alkaloid superstar" are disturbing collision of filthy
sludge-crust nightmare and psyche-keyboard noise assault, While their
3rd self-titled full length released on 2014 is
more focused on slow paced dark and heavy with experimental use of
field recording, acoustic guitar part, and
atmospheric drone noise textured by Yu Iwasaki, also known as JAH
EXCRETION, Tokyo-based psyche-ambient noise
artist who has been member of ZOTHIQUE as bass payer since late
2013.
Shortly after taking
part of the international doom/stoner/sludge compilation album "All
the witche's day released by Trip thru records on July 2014 along
with bands like Guevnna, Nepenthes, Oracle and Conan, ZOTHIQUE had
supported U.K's blackened doom
brigade Dragged into Sunlight for their first tour in Japan.
ZOTHIQUE's unending
search for another dimension of heavy music is expected to be even
more unexpected, hideously magnetic and
nightmarish.
Members
Shusuke
Shimonaka(Guitar, Vocal)
Koji Ueno (Drum)
Kenji Kuroda
(Keyboard, noise, sampling)
Yu Iwasaki (Bass and
drone)
Review:
I
first came across Zothique when I reviewed the All Witches Day Compilation which featured a ton of great Doom/Sludge/Stoner Metal
bands across the globe and I stated Zothique were one of the
highlights. Low and behold, a couple of months down the line,
Zothique released their new album which I was only made aware of
recently.
Zothique's
music is very hard to describe, so I will do my best as Japanese
Metal/Hard Rock bands never play by the rules. So here goes, Zothique
are a noisy psychedelic sludge stoner metal band with a few
electronic rock vibes showing up from time to time.
Their 3rd album is more of an audio feast and experience
than an album a Zothique create a lot of different styles with
substance to match. The first track - The Shadow of Linxia（临夏的阴影)
– starts off with a slow mid-tempo glitch-like pace before
exploding into life with a loud wall of distorted noise coming at
you. It makes for uncomfortable listening at times but still highly
addictive. It has a Melvins experimental feel to it. Things that
shouldn't work actually make a lot of sense. The vocals are weird as
hell but that's the beauty of this track. It's so far out there you
don't know what is going to happen next. Wait until the 4th
minute when the heavy and violent pounding sludge metal riffs kick
in. Zothique change from experimental musicians to experimental
musical monsters with the power of noise as their primary weapon.
Second
Track – Hypnotic Kaleidoscope – features more of the same
bat-shit crazy experimental rock vibe though at a more slower and
peaceful pace compared to the fist track. Well for the first 7 mins
or so before the band unleash the crazy as hell rock persona’s for
the whole world to hear. The Psychedelic Sludge Riffs come screeching
in and there is no turning back. As Zothique blend glitch based doom
and gloom atmospherics with brutal disturbing vocals that takes the
album into darker and almost horrific territory.
Third
and final Track – AMOY – is possibly the most straight forward
song on the album but it's still weird as hell. Slow paced riffs that
spells out DOOM with distorted confidence. Zothique know this is the
last stand to make you a fan of their music. It's one epic ride that
will test your patience. It's a hypnotic and twisted journey as you
cannot turn away from the craziness going on around you. Epic
stuff!!!
Zothique
have created an excellent and dark as hell album that I can't
recommend highly enough. These guys are in a league of their own.
Words
by Steve Howe
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