Alpha Drone

Now this is something you don't see every day: Black metal not only drawing from as distinctly modern a mythology as that surrounding UFOs, but throwing in influences from the most sinister corners of occultism. Yes, that's right... you might have heard of NSBM, but are you ready for FSBM as in Flying Saucer Black Metal?

It's an extremely varied album... the longer songs follow the "ambient black metal" tradition laid down by Burzum and Darkthrone, but with not only surprisingly complex textured songwriting but a high level of quirkiness. "Shambala Serrano", for example, has a prominent piano AND the rhythm being provided not only by the drums but by a repeated sample of chanting Buddhist monks that shows up at the end of "Akashaganga", a fast-paced chaotic number full of more traditionally sci-fi electronic sound effects expected from a band whose name reminds me of the Borg from "Star Trek". In fact, if Hawkwind were a black metal band formed in the 1990s/2000s rather than an old prog-rock band they'd probably sound a lot like "Akashaganga".

Two of the shorter songs, "Theozoology" and "To Take Earth Back From Man", are respectively a noisy industrial mood piece serving as the album's intro by setting up the entire "futuristic occult" vibe and the closest thing to conventional metal on the album. Both of those incidentally feature some military march-style drumming. The closer "The Sophonaut" is a most bizarre fusion of folk-rock and electronic noise with some slightly distorted spoken-work narration that are the only vocals much intelligible on the album.

On the subject of vocals, they mostly vary between a muffled but recognizeably human scream and what sounds like extraterrestrials speaking in their own language. The production is a bit fuzzy and somewhat cold, with the guitars not sounding that guitar-like at all... and did I mention all the sampled sound effects used? The Tibetan chants are only the tip of the iceberg. A didgeridoo even shows up at some point.

As different an atmosphere from most other black metal albums as Alpha Drone attempt, this album actually succeeds. The weird stuff doesn't make it come across as silly, it creates a very unique air of otherwordliness. This chance meeting of ancient and new mythologies is certainly worth a listen for those who like unconventional black metal and have a taste for the paranormal.