IMAGINE THE VOID

Spiral are a very unique psych-doom-stoner-thrash band born of the desert sands. "Imagine the Void" is a two-track single from Citizen, one of my favorite Spiral albums to this day despite the fact that they have released much more elaborate works since. I like the story behind the album, which recapping goes something like this: man is trapped in a soulless futuristic society controlled by machines, where humans are forced into labor not to produce things of value, but to keep them occupied. I guess we're pretty much there.

At night he stares up into (what he thinks) is the sky and imagines traveling out into the infinite darkness. He rubs his hands over his smooth metallic face and feels the area between it and his neck. After a few years of this he begins to think that maybe his head has too many layers and perhaps one of them ' the outermost ' is not his own.

Musically the tracks are a bit more economical than later Spiral which is often heavy and crushing. In contrast "Imagine the Void" almost sounds "lighter" at times, not a common feeling on their albums, but it cruises along with the guitar lines direct and driving and the vocals more tempered than usual. I love the ringing chords and vocals in the first half, before it breaks into a tasty electric solo. "Citizens of the Earth" has the same linear guitar feel but with a much more intense vocal. Lots of fuzz on the guitars and urgent, layered vocals leave a feeling of desperation.

Both songs are very cool as usual but I'd urge newbies to jump right into the actual albums instead. Most of them have cool stories and concepts that benefit from getting the entire feast. Check out Spiral at their Bandcamp page linked at their artist page. Beware that they are pretty heavy and dark, so if you like sunny happy prog this is not your band.