Mega-fuzzy mind fuck from the awesomely named Haunted Leather, a trio of robed heatwave hallucinations floating amongst some sandy dunes, spewing these seven desert spells at you like a flood of rubber lava. This vibration worship comes straight out of Grand Rapids, Michigan, of all places, no doubt culled from some wood-paneled, suburban den, its thick shag floor littered with empty cough syrup bottles. I’d cite Om, Naam, Orange Sunshine, Dead Meadow, and Hawkwind as obvious influences on Haunted Leather’s heavy psych, but I think they’ve also spent a lot of time chasing the midnight sun and memorizing kaleidoscope designs. However they get their freak on, there’s a few things I know for sure: the music pulses and oozes like a fat wave of strange, the vocals are a numbing wail of some long lost ancient language, and the whole thing will knock you into a half-conscious state of dopey bliss.
Blood Ceremony Living With the Ancients
Rise Above
It’s been three years since Toronto’s Blood Ceremony drew us into their sect of satyrs with their self-titled debut, binding us to dungeon walls until such a time our sacrifice was desired, and it seems that moment has indeed arrived. Sorcerers of retro ritual rock, Blood Ceremony lay down doom-powered riffs over top hellfire organ, but their weapon of choice is the dark mistress Alia O’Brien, whose mastery of voice and flute are the spells that bind and hypnotize. Like its predecessor, Living With the Ancients is a bone-carved chalice overflowing with the fog of a pagan prog potion, and where one ends with a hymn to Pan the other begins with another such ode to the great half-man, half-goat God, thus continuing the sacred bloodline of influence and imagery that courses through all they do. You’ll also find demons, witches, hermits, magicians, ancient Roman priests, and W. Somerset Maugham’s caricature of Aleister Crowley at this monster’s ball, a medieval European masquerade not unlike the pentagram parties thrown by The Devil’s Blood, Ghost, Year of the Goat, Witchcraft, and so on. So, go ahead, offer yourself up to Blood Ceremony’s wicked ways. You’ll be glad you did.
I don’t know at what point this retro occult rock movement is going to turn into a silly fad, but I don’t think we’re there yet, which means I can continue to pour candle wax all over myself in the name of this bitchin’ dark art. Sweden’s Year of the Goat is the latest band to delve into the ceremonial castle doom with their debut four-song EP, Lucem Ferre, which tables a slightly cleaner and more melodic psych-rock sound than what you might get from contemporaries like Witchcraft, Ghost, The Devil’s Blood, Dead Man, Graveyard, Blood Ceremony, Asteroid, and others. The EP’s three original songs, “Of Darkness,” “Vermillion Clouds,” and the instrumental “Lucem Ferre,” are powered by Thomas Eriksson’s Buckley-bled voice and a whole cabal of groovy, crimson-tinged riffs likely conjured up in some virgin-killing ritual, while the Sam Gopal (back when Lemmy was at the helm) cover, “Dark Lord,” follows the possessed, fuzzy-cloaked form we’re used to hearing from bands of this breed. Simply put, Lucem Ferre is four songs of ancient awesomeness and I swear it’ll make you want to smoke skull dust, drink from a chalice, and pray for someone’s pagan soul.
Haunted Leather
Blood Ceremony
Year of the Goat