Aver: Orbis Majora

From the name of the band, to the album title and utterly bizarre album cover (entwined naked ladies with purple orbs for heads), I just knew this music would be right up my alley. Sydney, Australia’s Aver have released three albums thus far, Orbis Majora being their latest. Where else can you hear a near perfect concoction of stoner, psychedelic and progressive rock in one fell swoop?

First the vocals. Burdt has a powerful voice, sometimes carrying a bit of grunge-like attitude, sometimes gritty, melodic and very catchy. The guitars are equally as effective. In fact, the guitar work throughout this disc is a major highlight. Superb solos, sometimes clean, sometimes fuzz drenched and generally very creative. The violin also has a large presence although it is not listed in the credits. For instance, the first track “Feeding The Sun� beginning with calming, almost folk-like nuance twisting hazy psychedelic guitar and swaths of violin, building slowly and most assuredly is a most welcome slice of psychedelic space rock. The vocals drift in an almost dream-like state while the guitar gets fuzzier and the music turns in a stoner rock direction. As the vocals take on more grit there is almost a grunge feel and the fuzz drenched guitar riffs certainly add to the heaviness. Changes of pace, shades of heavy and light keeps complacency at bay always looking for that tasty morsel just around the corner. Exemplary guitar work defines the excellent “Disorder� having a kind of dreamy flow and more spacey psychedelic sounds. The plodding “The Last Goat Out of Pompeii� is built on another great guitar riff with distant sounding vocals at the start before morphing into a whole lot of intensity. The last two tracks; “Unanswered Prayers� and “Hemp Fandango� are over ten minutes each allowing the band to further explore their trippy space-like endeavors.

Orbis Majora is indeed an excellent space/psychedelic work , worthy of sitting at the table with the heavy hitters of the genre.

A Ripple Music release.

Band members:
Burdt (guitar, vocals)
Henry (drums)
Luke (guitar)
Jed (bass)

Track Listing:
1. Feeding The Sun
2. Disorder
3. The Last Goat Out of Pompeii
4. Unanswered Prayers
5. Hemp Fandango

Added: July 23rd 2019
Reviewer: Jon Neudorf
Score:
Related Link: Band's Facebook Page
Hits: 988
Language: english

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