Wednesday 1 April 2015

Domovoyd - Domovoyd (Album Review)

























Album Type: Album
Date Released: May 08th 2015
Label: Svart Records

Domovoyd - Domovoyd - Track Listing

01. Domovoyage
02. Ambrosian Perfume
03. Caustic Afterglow
04. Mystagogue
05. Amor Fati
06. Vivid Insanity

Members:

Oskar Tunderberg - clamor, low frequencies
Niko Lehdontie - oscillations, low frequencies
Dmitry Melet - lower frequencies
Axel Solimeis - pulse

Bio:

Echoing guitars from the grooves of distant space, Domovoyd drone forth their debut album "Oh Sensibility." Detonated in the year 2010, the band has risen to the forefront of the Finnish Underground. Masters of dark, hypnotic, sprawling hazed-out doom, their music is a flaming celebration of the psychedelic arts from the temples of Hawkwind to Matt Pike's altar of the riff. Capturing the live-energy that has electrified audiences with their unique, heavy dose of rhythmic sludge, Oh Sensibility is an album that drone heads and doom freaks cannot afford to miss.

Swilling the world about in their mouths and spitting it through a cosmic spiral, Domovoyd know how to traverse time and space, and have the necessary intoxicating ingredients to take you there. Saddle up your space rocket and say goodbye to your sensibilities, as Domovoyd, smoking long dead galaxies in their wake, blast you into the furthest reaches of beyond.

Review:

The fine people of Svart have delivered the goods once more with this eponymous LP from Domovoyd. The young Finnish quartet barely look old enough to legally drive let alone be crafting a monumental second album of super-heavy psychedelic rock with a strong retro flavour. “Domovoyd” is bookended by two monstrous journeys into the outer limits; the aptly named “Domovoyage” and “Vivid Insanity”.

Domovoyage” kicks off with a menacing cloud of Velvet-Underground-style droning violins, establishing an uneasy atmosphere before the band enters the fray and establishes some flange-heavy vibes. Proceedings gradually get fuzzier with more searing leads coming to the fore before the whole track unexpectedly goes up several gears, launching into a furious gallop towards the stratosphere. Vocals make their appearance for the first time, giving the overall feel of Jus Oborn fronting a tooled-up Hawkwind.

Just when you think that Domovoyd have reached a plateau of psychedelic perfection, they manage to find even higher gears, cranking up the intensity and dropping some seriously crunching riffage. The vocals match the fury of the music, giving the impression of Matt Pike at full tilt, trapped in a wind tunnel. Things calm down a little after this only for the band to begin the whole journey again, even more exhilarating second time round. As opening tracks go, 2015 will have to try pretty hard to rival this onslaught.

The album ends in similarly epic fashion with the 17 minute monster “Vivid Insanity”. Beginning in sparse, tranquil fashion as the band lock into a lazy, hypnotic groove haunted by the same buzzing violins that started the record. The peace is shattered by frantic heaviness, the band building up a head of steam before lurching into treacle-thick riffage to end the album on a satisfyingly doomy note.

Although these two behemoths offer the highlights of “Domovoyd”, there’s plenty of fun to be had from the tracks in between. In particular, “Mystagogue” does a fine impression of prime Electric Wizard which continues into “Amor Fati” which adds a bit of the frantic garage rock of The Heads to the mix to fine effect.

Domovoyd” is a fine effort from this exhilarating young band, a perfect mix of classic psychedelic rock and modern heavy sounds that is sure to stick in the mind long enough to bother 2015’s end-of-year lists.

Words by Charlie Butler

Thanks to Nathan and Svart Records for the promo. Domovoyd will be available to buy on CD/DD/Vinyl from Svart Records from May 8th 2015

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