Wednesday 11 November 2015

Dark Buddha Rising - 'Inversum' (Album Review)

By: Mike Wilcox

Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 25/09/2015
Label: Neurot Recordings




While it would be kind of nice to be able to pull up a specific riff, to play a certain part for that certain someone, Dark Buddha Rising make you earn those riffs.  By the end of it you’re transported into their world.  And you aren’t the least bit sorry about it.  This album is like a dark communion with the earth and now that you’ve had a taste you can’t wait for more…


“Inversum” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1). ESO
2). EXO

The Review:

Dark Buddha Rising make me feel like I’m in some sort of deprivation tank when I’m listening to their newest album, “Inversum”.  Over the duration of the twenty four minutes that is the album’s first track, “ESO”, the listener goes from drone to sludge to a harrowing stoner vibe that Black Sabbath fans will instantly pick up…and when the stark vocals come in, almost chanting in this dark ritualistic atmosphere, this seductive vibe, you are brought to the epitome of Stoner Metal.  With a structure that allows room for building organic material and adding to it as the overall momentum grows, “ESO” takes you through what would be an entire album’s worth of music to many.  The track leads you out in a rather unique way.  There’s some doom drone, that’s to be expected.  It’s good.  If Electric Wizard re-did the cult classic Heavy Metal it would probably sound something like this.  The guitars and effects are then utilized to create a static wash, a repeating and harsh echoing sound, and you’re suddenly dropped into this undeniably Melvins-esque jam with the last three or so minutes sounding like some sort of long lost White Zombie one off.  It’s fantastic.

As “EXO” opens into something reminiscent of a David Lynch soundscape, the listener is quickly escorted into thick rhythmic pounding met with a two note ominous drone and a surreal manipulation of guitar effects casting a haze over the entire mix…and then you realize that there are seventeen minutes left of this (also) twenty four minute long track…this is just the beginning…  The floor gives way to the sonic stoner hearted riff that follows.  A unique attribute of Dark Buddha Rising’sInversum” is that the tracks are actually not terribly complicated- there are something like five different notes used in “EXO”…or damn near close to it- but stretched so far out, filled with complimenting instrumental sounds, that you lose sight and feeling of the fact that it’s a single track.  That’s the beauty of their drone.  While it would be kind of nice to be able to pull up a specific riff, to play a certain part for that certain someone, Dark Buddha Rising make you earn those riffs.  By the end of it you’re transported into their world.  And you aren’t the least bit sorry about it.  This album is like a dark communion with the earth and now that you’ve had a taste you can’t wait for more…


‘Inversum’ is available here


FFO: Saturnalia Temple, Bong, Horse Latitudes, Loinen


Band info: facebook | bandcamp