OF SOUND MIND

Over the last few months I have briefly conversed with band guitarist Justin Maranga through blog comments and the odd email with regards to the band's first release, and this, their sophomore release - due out October the 6th on Tee Pee Records. Judging from his opinion and my own excitement, i had huge expectations for this record. I was lucky enough to score a full preview back in early August.

I really enjoyed 'Neptune With Fire' last year. It was so different from everything else I had heard at the time. I came into this one expecting to be surprised and certainly was. For starters the riffs are just as gigantic as Neptune, but we knew they would be! This time around they have tightened it all up.. adding and including all different sounds, dimensions and themes to keep it fresh. Structure wise, there are 4 monster tracks - each clocking in at around 15 minutes give or take - and a series of short and contrasting interludes.

The opening track 'From Nothing' is the shortest on the album and is filled with all kinds of bizarre fidgety sounds, as if the band were preparing to deliver the collective wallop you know is on it's way. It leads into the doomy beginning of 'Mother Animal', which after 3 minutes of slow thunder turns into a short funky desert-like groove you can't help but smile and nod along with. The song builds and builds with momentum. You think you're at the peak of it and bam! Things eventually simmer down as the vocals re-appear, returning us to the stable gravity pull we know - if only for a moment! The bass and percussion keep it driving slow and doomy throughout, while the mesmerizing guitar and haunting organ paint all over the open canvas.

'Not The Last Return' is the first of two short and great piano pieces, letting your ears adjust. You can be sure another ass-kicking is waiting for you in a few moments. 'Bounty of Age' is currently streaming on the Tee Pee site, check it. The bluesy guitar playing in the middle parts is absolutely breath taking. It actually kinda reminds me of something from Neil Young's 'On the Beach' album, one of my favourites. Again the organ is just pushing the entire thing along from the background, it seems to be a common theme throughout the record and works very well. 'A Friend' is a new and interesting dimension to the band, making use of electronics and synthesizers, sounding like a lost part to Jean Michel Jarre's 'Oxygene' even.

It leads in to arguably the greatest song the band has created to date, 'The Trial'. The moment i heard the guitar come in i was amazed, the tones are just so damn powerful and majestic. This is clearly Justin's time to shine and he does as it slowly burns along. It's truly incredibly how these guys can turn the most sonically beautiful sound into such an evil, menacing beast. Such is the case as the song dips down into uncharted darkness, at which point Sera Timms of label-mates Black Math Horseman enters. I've been obsessed with their own album since it's release, and needless to say the Ancestors setting suits her to a tee! Never mind the fact i can't understand a word she says, she possesses one of the most distraught and powerful voices i have heard in a damn long while. She seems to be buried a little low in the mix, granted she still sounds great.. perhaps just a little quiet. I'm sure this was the sound they were going for though, and therefor is but only a minor quibble.

'Challenging', much like 'Not The Last Return' sees the return of the lonely piano as it's chord patterns pulsate throughout the quieter track - this time accompanied by some lovely acoustic guitar playing, which was a pleasant surprise. It serves as a great intro to stylistically, the most straight-forward of the longer pieces. Consider it the melodic ending to the insane trip, the rockin' journey back to our home planet! It moves quick, stays just long enough and kicks a great portion of ass before slowly coming to a close. This really sounds like all that 70's hard rock influence just gushing out. An outstanding closing to an outstanding album.

You can really tell the production has been amped up a few notches here. I absolutely love the keys spread all over this album, the bluesy guitar solos are very tasty as well. Every track fires on all cylinders, but if i had to I'd say 'The Trial' definitely blew me away the most. It's not very often you get that stunned in amazement feeling that this song left me with. Running in at just over an hour usually pushes it for me, but i still didn't want this one to end. I can tell i'll be revisiting it over and over again.

"Of Sound Mind" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US, Los Angeles, California based stoner metal act Ancestors. The album was released through Tee Pee Records in October 2009.

Ancestors play an interesting mix of stoner metal and 70s psychadelic/progressive rock and in addtion to guitars, drums, bass and vocals, there are keyboards, electronics and an omnipresent organ featured in the music. The vocal style varies between raw and clean (when the vocals are most mellow they remind me of the vocal style on the early seventies releases by Pink Floyd). The band´s debut album "Neptune With Fire (2008)" was quite a mouthful, as it consisted of only two 15 - 20 minutes long tracks of stoner metal with long sections of jamming and only limited use of vocals.

Ancestors have developed their sound significantly since the debut though and while most tracks featured on "Of Sound Mind" are still very long (out of 8 tracks on the 71:26 minutes long album, 4 tracks exceed the 12 minutes mark), the tracks are much better composed and more structured than the tracks from the debut album. There are still some long jamming parts on the album, and I have to admit that some of the parts in tracks like "Bounty of Age" and especially the 17:34 minute long "The Trial" go on a bit too long for my taste.

I wasn´t exactly expecting to be blown away by "Of Sound Mind" as I found "Neptune With Fire (2008)" a bit unfocused and lacking structure. "Of Sound Mind" has really surprised me though and to my ears it´s a quality album, featuring solid musicianship, an organic sound production and some well written material. I still find some of the jamming parts unnecesarily long but that´s ultimately an aquired taste so I won´t hold it against the album. A 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.

Listening diary 21st February, 2021: Ancestors - Of Sound Mind (psychedelic stoner doom metal, 2009)

I really love the existence of Ancestors, even if I don't really feel their music half the time. There are so few bands in metal carrying on the spirit of psych rock, and Ancestors seem to almost solely carry the torch in the doom metal scene of the late 2000s. There are moments from this that straight-up sound like David Gilmour is playing, and some real beauty in the organ parts in particular. I've never really been sold on the band's stoner elements, and here is no exception though, and unlike on In Dreams and Time, I don't think the softer parts are enough to completely outweigh the boring doom sections. But still, it's the sort of record you can get immersed in and I know few other bands who do this mix of genres.

6.0 (1st listen)

Part of my listening diary from my facebook music blog - www.facebook.com/TheExoskeletalJunction