By Jonny Bakes
It’s been at least five years since Spelljammer last hit the streets with an album release, so you could say that they’ve had plenty of time to search out the theme for a new album. What we didn’t expect is for them to pick the most expansive topic possible to try and condense into some filthy doom goodness, so it’s no wonder that it’s taken this long to come to fruition! Spelljammer packed their bags and took themselves away for a cheery little ‘Abyssal Trip’ to provide the influence for this latest album from the Swedish trio, so the only thing to do is see what souvenirs they brought back with them!
Overall, this is about as slow and heavy as Eddie Hall running a marathon and the experience is like listening to the album through a vat of treacle. And these are two things that are pretty essential to any self-respecting doom band to ensure you get a solid immobilising gut punch from the moment you start listening to it. The low guitar provides a constant reverberating buzz interspersed with rib-shaking notes that combines with the hard-hitting drums to complete the rhythm. It’s the kind of rhythm that will get you caught in a really slow headbang that becomes hypnotic and you’ll soon find yourself being dragged into the abyss for the ride!
The album starts off with a suspenseful drone accompanied with the warble of an air raid siren that draws you in to be blasted with some seriously downtuned guitar chugs. No real riff or anything to speak of here, just chugs at odd intervals that catch you by surprise as you realise that there’s no real pattern to them. Eventually this does manifest into a sludgy groove, that makes me break out in a healthy grimace, which eventually paves the way for a slow melody that sees you through the rest of this six-minute number, ‘Bellweather’.
Stand out track for me has to be the ten-minute monster title track ‘Abyssal Trip’ which starts with a classic horror soundbite before things get really filthy with another sludgy riff. There’s a pretty strong sensation of Black Sabbath in this track too, both musically and vocally, which is by no means a bad thing. Hell when you enter the doom sphere, it’s almost sacrilege not to have at least a little nod at the (arguably) originators of the entire genre! However, this isn’t a complete Sabbath clone by any stretch of the imagination, Spelljammer dial the speed back even further and pile on the weight to bring it back to the same sensation that dominates the rest of the album.
Overall, ‘Abyssal Trip’ is an album that stands up pretty well in a world where it seems that everyone and their mums wants to get in on the doom/stoner scene. The album itself is well crafted and mastered (thanks to Monolord drummer Esben Willems) to deliver an elegantly fuzzy piece of doom metal. Is it something that I will be blasting out on repeat for the next few weeks? Probably not. It’s a good album but it didn’t completely blow me away to the point where I could obsess over this for the next few weeks. If doom is completely your scene, then you can do far worse than to take a little ‘Abyssal Trip’ to see what Spelljammer have found hidden deep in the abyss…
- ‘Abyssal Trip’ is out now. You can get your copy HERE.
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