Continuing in the tradition of classic doom / sludge bands like Neurosis and Isis comes The Atlas Moth, a new five piece outfit hailing from Chicago. Armed with a dizzying three guitar wall of sound, plus some synthesizer thrown in for a bit of psychedelic atmosphere, their full length debut effort A Glorified Piece of Blue Sky released in 2009 by Candlelight Records is an excellent mixture of bone crushingly heavy, modern doom mixed with 70's space rock influences.
This is one hell of a wild and in your face ride as for almost one hour they batter the listener's cranium with an unrelenting onslaught that relies on massive amounts of densely layered guitars coupled with a shit load of atonal screaming. The buildup can either be gradual as on the slow rise of "A Night in Venus' Arms" or immediate as on "Grey Wolves" which swallows you with it's all encompassing wall of sound and a throbbing rhythm section that is all over the map it's enough to send you reeling. For all of its innate heaviness and there's an awful lot of it on display here, check out for example the potent one two mid album punch of "Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence" and the Sabbath style riffage found throughout "One Amongst The Wheat Fields", the bands shifts gears slightly with the final two tracks and reveals a bit of a softer (?) side in the process. "Jump To Orion" is an excellent composition that begins with some eerie sounding guitar textures before the clean vocals enter into the fray and begin to trade off with white noise screams overtop the guitars which gradually bring the tension dangerously close to the precipice, yet without ever falling over the edge. This segues naturally into"…Leads to a Lifetime on Mercury" which picks up not only where the title of the opening track left off, but thematically as well. Full of slow, chugging riffs, more clean vocals and tortured screaming this ten minute epic seems like an altogether fitting way to bring the proceedings to a close.
The Atlas Moth has turned in a pretty impressive debut with A Glorified Piece of Blue Sky . If extreme, brain frying, atmospheric doom metal is up your alley then you should definitely look these guys up.
Track Listing
1) A Night in Venus' Arms
2) A Glorified Piece of Blue Sky
3) Grey Wolves
4) Our Sun, Our Savior
5) Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence
6) One Amongst the Wheat Fields
7) Jump Room to Orion
8) …Leads to a Lifetime on Mercury
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