Credit where it's due.
Few bands simultaneously conjure up broody Black Sabbath, prog-pomp King Crimson, desperate Siouxsie Banshee and the hippie-vibe of the Incredible String Band . . . and expect to get away with it.
Especially not if they add – to pile-driving metal guitars and the Middle Eastern exoticism of their singer Rabia Shabeen Qazi – wide swathes of quasi-mystical songs about priests and spirit warriors, women with wingless arms (in their world that's not unusual) and guitarist/leader Chris Cheveyo who exists in the netherworld between Zeppelin (check the six minute coda) and Jefferson Airplane.
So here's an impressively eclectic debut from a Seattle band (home of the similar, better but much-ignored Sky Cries Mary) who have their Airplane radio-length song in Heavenly Days and also tick off folk-blues Zeppelin moments in the blues-based Walkin' With a Woman and the Season of the Serpents (with flute).
Yep, this is widescreen retro-but-relevant trip-rock. Less an album than a lifestyle accessory . . . if your lifestyle comes with patchouli and benign but illegal drugs. Start with the exceptional 10 minute This Shroud.
Consumer warning: some Doors/Airplane fans never came back from such things, so don't drive during or after.
Weirdly seductive.
Like the sound of this? Then start here. And be careful out there.
By Graham Reid, posted
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