THE COSMIC DEAD

1. "Portal" (20:57) opens with five minutes of tension-building drumless synth and guitar work before machine gun drumming, lap-steel, and hypnotic vocal chant enter and repeat for over six minutes. At 12:18 it all shifts with a kind of LED ZEP "Rock 'n' Roll" frenzied drum beat pacing the way. Guitar and lap-steel go bat crazy (I swear there are more than two tracks creating all of this chaos!) How (or why) they keep it going for so long is a wonder. Screeching vocals become more apparent towards the end. (32/40)

2. "Ursa Major (18:23) a smoother ride with a more melody-conscious ambiance, this one could have been from the 1960s West Coast Psychedelia Scene (e.g., STEPPENWOLF or THE DOORS) or from 21st Century California band PERPLEXA. The drumming skill of Tommy Duffin is much more evidenced here. (35/40)

3. "Video Scottish Space Race (11:54) heavy, GUAPO-RUINS-like heaviness, opens this one. It takes over two minutes to pound it into our heads that this is going to be a heavy, Zeuhl-heavy, song. Once the band falls into the STEPPENWOLF-like pace and guitar chord sequence, an angry vocal is screamed over a choir chant and the music. "Can you dig it?" is the prolonged chorus before the instrumentalists launch off into their wild space trajectories. At times the bass player is going absolutely frantic with his movement on the fretboard. Return to scream vocal and chant for the second half. Entertaining but not really my cup of tea. (21/25)

4. "The Grizzard" (24:08) this one opens with a repetitious crashing that reminds me of some SWANS songs. After about four minutes of this the music straightens out into a cantor over which electric guitar wails and screams for about six minutes before he is joined by a second guitar track. Take the original "Layla" and amp up that guitar duet in the second half by about 20 pills and you get what I'm hearing. At 12:30 the music switches into a more DOORS-like pace and HENDRIX sound--including playing with echoed vocal shouts. This is the motif that plays out over the next eight minutes before things begin to break down and decompose. Interesting. (42/50)

Total Time 75:22

B-/3.5 stars. Try it for yourself--if you dare!