III

2014's DSD release manages to top their wonderful previous work with some really hard and excellent space. The band shed their smoother side that was shown on "II" in favour of a rockier, more stoner sound, and it works. This sounds like being in the midst of a psycadelic explosion in slow motion. "Beyond The Black Star" will grab your attention immediately, and the album won't let go until it says all it wishes to say. Olli Niemitalo joins with a black deck, adding to the band's sound and range. And the guitar is just plain perfect the whole time. One of the years best releases, your head will explode too.

The third album by the Northern Finnish space rock trio features also Olli Niemitalo on black deck (I presume it means electronics). If the second album's Art Nouveau styled cover art wasn't exactly suitable to the music, as good-looking as it is, the wild, literally head-exploding, rainbow coloured, nightmarish front picture of III is doubtlessly closer to the essence of this Psychedelic Space Rock that can be referred as heavy stoner rock too.

The opening track 'Beyond the Black Star' (the shortest of the five) is really pure and satisfying Space Rock: it has a sharp edge and rock power, but the hardness doesn't take over the spaceyness. The vocals, which to me are the weak link of this band, appear only slightly in the background and without lyrics. The next 9-minute song has a lot of those blurry, angry vocals I'm not fond of at all. Luckily the instrumentally oriented slower section starting in the middle improves the track notably.

'Cosmic Burial' has a deeply psychedelic instrumental intro, reminding me of Saucerful of Secrets era PINK FLOYD, until the heavier sound and the vocals enter. I guess one has to enjoy Heavy Rock not to be disappointed with these elements on DSD's music. 'An Ode to Indifferent Universe' is the longest track (15:12) and also the most progressive. The vocals are not so blurry, and the less-heavy playing has a spacey atmosphere. The rhythm patterns are quite variable too.

The final, Finnish-language track 'Ikuinen alku' (= Eternal Beginning) starts with a brief, preaching speech about our planet's doom. The song itself is not among the highlights. Well, I guess as a whole this one isn't clearly better than the second, even if there are stronger moments. Surely this can be recommended for friends of hard-rocking Psych/Space that don't mind unsophisticated vocals.