Джєбарс

Soom's second album "Djebars" was brought to my attention by Anton Kitaev whose Moscow-based label NoName666 stocks this album as well as several others in the psych / stoner / doom genre. Little did I know - until I started checking out Soom's history and discography - that one of the band's members, Amorth, is a veteran of Kharkiv's underground BM scene, playing in Astrofaes (along with Thurios of Drudkh) among other bands! As the saying goes, we live in a small world indeed. And it's probably time I did come back to Kharkiv to review a recording by a band from that city after years of wandering all over the globe hearing out other bands that would otherwise remain in MA's Orphans Corner of lovable yet unloved bands stuck in the darkness (of a sort no-one loves, not that other kind of darkness that inspires great dark music) with no reviews.

Running at 74+ minutes, "Djebars" is a demanding album mixing molten-lava sludge doom, stoner metal, Ukrainian folk, a hard edge and plenty of malevolent atmosphere and a sense of dread. Here is one of those recordings that should come with a health warning not to drive, mix with alcohol and/or strong intoxicants, or listen to late on Friday or Saturday nights on your own just after you have been stood up by your girlfriend or boyfriend who kept tagging you along as long as your hip-pocket was full. This album is a complete immersive experience: those rolling riff slabs, brimming with slow intense and unbearable heat, bringing dark unspeakable thoughts, will thunder over you and encase you in thick layers of black evil. Without doubt, the thick grinding subterranean guitars, deep and booming, are the best thing here: the drums bravely hold their own with a hard-hitting sound that emphasises the intense driving nature of the guitars and bass. Vocals are just as deep, even ogre-like, and the possibility that Soom have invoked supernatural beings of pre-Christian Slav times becomes real.

This is a conceptual album which explains the long, mostly instrumental tracks that more or less bleed into one from the other with short interludes that may feature spoken-word recordings and experimental ambient music (like "Laughter of the Night Virgins" and "Feng Shui Souvenir", the latter also including a fast techno beat) - so it's best heard in one hit, after which a very long recovery period may be required before you play again. In spite of the long playing time, during most of which your ears and the space between them are continually being bludgeoned to the point of numbness by wave after crashing concrete wave of deep low-end bass crumble and occasional hysterical lead guitar, this music is never boring: the musicians take you on a long torturous journey beyond our material universe and their enthusiasm and utter faith in what they're doing and where we're all going are infectious and carry us all along. In the last track of the album proper (this is "Wheelchair"), the music speeds up and becomes truly unhinged and chaotic.

On top of all this, the band includes two bonus tracks "Nagno" and "Panic Attack" which, depending on the state of your nerves by the time you get this far, are completely bat-shit crazy or sheer deranged genius in extending what the rest of the album before had built up to. While most listeners might be happy going as far as "Wheelchair" and leaving the album at that, they really should give these bonus songs their time in the spotlight if only to hear Soom playing fast and crazed.

The album deserves much more publicity than it has had so far - the musicians have put their hearts and souls into this work and they have really gone out far on a limb with extended improvisations and hypnotic music.