EL DOOM & THE BORN ELECTRIC

'El Doom and the Born Electric' - El Doom and the Born Electric (8/10)

Born out of the fires of molten rock and Hammond organs, El Doom and the Born Electric is a continuation of the work of a Mr. Ole Petter Andreassen, perhaps better known to the so- called "stoner rock" scene as El Doom. It's arguable whether the music of this new project falls under the same label, but it is evident that the progressive tendencies of his music have been emphasized. Fusing the hard rock energy of early Deep Purple with the vocal charisma of Arthur Brown and weird psychedelia of The Mars Volta, El Doom and the Born Electric is pretty hard to resist.

Bombast and vintage glory are the lifeblood of everything El Doom and company do here. Although 'vintage prog rock' is a term most often used when describing bands that take after the mellotron-laden styles of Yes and Genesis, this music is rooted indelibly in hard rock tradition. As mentioned before, Deep Purple and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown are a visible foundation for the Born Electric's sound. Though the musical template is dominated by thunderous riffs and grooves, there is a surprising amount of melody on the record that become more evident on the second listen. El Doom and the Born Electric are not ones to feed on subtlety, but the sheer bombast and power of El Doom's vocal delivery may trick a listener into thinking there is less melodic softness than there actually is. On top of being a fantastic riff-based guitar player, Andreassen has an incredible voice both intense and theatrical. Although not quite diving into operatic territory, he has a very strong vibrato to his voice. Recalling some of the band's more metal inclinations, he sounds like Damian Wilson (formerly of the progressive metal band Threshold) mixed with the bark of a carnival announcer. It is no surprise that a band like this would ride depending on the skill of their vocalist, and 'El Doom' Andreassen is phenomenal.

The album's production does a nice service to El Doom's voice, although some of the guitar riffs can feel a little muddied, or unclear in the mix. To its benefit, this dusty sound does not seem out of line when taking into account the grimy lyrical content of the music. With sleazy metaphors going as far as to say someone was 'pulled out of a colostomy bag', or even 'pissing in [El Doom's] mouth', these are not the gentlemen that write lyrics for children's cartoon singalongs. While not always pleasant or tasteful, the lyrics feel grimly fitting of their old school, sludgy sound. Proggers unlikely to have their finer sensibilities startled will find plenty to love here. Intelligent composition, tight and dynamic performance and some of the coolest vocal work I've heard in a while makes for a fun and lively rock record.

El Doom and the Born Electric gave me the initial impression of, "this is what I wish Mastodon sounded like." In other words, all the good parts of Mastodon without the potentially annoying. In reality, as you get deeper into this album, it's much more. There's a range of sounds here (I'll avoid the word influences since I don't know if these bands influenced them) , Mastodon already being mentioned, and the album has a sort of transgenerational feel. As already pointed out, there's the modern influences, the kind of sludgy postrock-ish modern prog bits, but there's also a good dose of 70's heavy prog, gothic rock, and lots of classic hard rock too, calling to mind Rainbow era Ronnie James Dio. The composition is smart, whether they're using bluesy riffs or odd time signatures with dissonant chords, it also seems to work out very naturally. El Doom & the Electric proves to be a quality album with a little bit for both the modern and the old school heavy rock fan. Don't be expecting symphonic prog here, just good heavy guitar driven progressive rock.