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Review Summary: Scorching summer desert rock... One of the first areas that successfully adopted the original ‘90s desert/stoner rock/metal wave was South America. Ever since the Argentinian act, Los Natas released Delmar in 1998, it was clear they got the sound right. Although over the next 20 years Europe became the genre’s home, there was always a slow but steady flow of releases below the Equator from bands such as Poseidotica, The Ganjas, Humo del Cairo, Follakzoid, Sur Oculto, Los Antiguos, Felipe Arcazas or Los Asteroide to name a few. Each evolved in a different direction, creating some much needed diversity. Meanwhile, the Santiago, Chile natives, Demonauta have been paving their way to the forefront through some scorching LPs this decade, 2016’s Tierra del Fuego being the crowning achievement so far. While nothing groundbreaking, that album had a heavy dose of fuzz and groove, alongside nice, clean vocals. Two years later, they brought us a sequel and, frankly, I wouldn’t have asked for anything else. Maybe it's the landscape, climate or simply nostalgia that’s inspiring, because they got that ‘90s Kyuss/Fu Manchu/Karma to Burn/Monster Magnet vibe with a modern production, of course. Plus, the cosmic artwork and vision heavily reminiscent of vintage science-fiction comics make for a really cool package to any fan boy of the genre.
Before slightly divagating, I mentioned Demonauta delivering a brand new album, Temaukel, the Spirit Before Time. The title has origins in the Selk’nam mythology, as Temaukel was the supreme God of the now-considered-extinct folk. They resided for centuries mainly in the current Argentinian & Chilean shared territory, Tierra del Fuego. Musically, this record shares several similarities with its predecessor, so we’re thrown directly into the pit where ‘Sons of the Black Sun’ fiercely throws aggressive riffs towards us. The grooves are abundant, a feature common throughout the album (one that makes it a fun listen), while the vocal contributions are significant enough to add another needed layer to the compositions. The torrid fuzz of ‘Blues Para Angela Loij’ is simply punishing and the mid-tempo beats only make it heavier. Yes, the riffage is made up of several variations of the aforementioned bands’ outputs, still, they are considerably more interesting and better structured than dozens of other acts’ songs today. As a side note, Angela Loij was the last surviving member of the Ona (another name given to the Selk’nam tribe), whose death in 1974 meant the extinction of these indigenous folk.
Moving on, the band further explores the spiritual universe of the tribe, as well as their genocide, while also crafting solid, accompanying tunes. The moody ‘Temaukel’ starts with oscillators and some cool, intertwining bass & guitar licks, before bursting into a dirty, doom-influenced main rhythm. The pace switches constantly, thus feeling like an erratic acid trip overall. At some point, effects-laden guitar solos take off, in between them a few melodic verses adding to the catchiness. As the track’s subdued finale gives way to the succinct instrumental tune, ‘Psilocybeat’, we're welcomed by dancey riffs, ending up somewhere between Samsara Blues Experiment’s ‘Army of Ignorance’ and a bit of that modern ZZ Top sleaze. Meanwhile, the pile driving closer, ‘Death as an Advisor’ pushes the slow burning fuzz at maximum power. You can hear those power chords torn up by the wonder pedal as the tempo gradually slows down. There’s a phasing effect on the guitar all over the song, creating a sonic vertigo over the 7-minute span. I like it how the guys enter into a “trance” and simply follow it until you’re hooked too.
In my opinion, Demonauta’s Temaukel, the Spirit Before Time hits close to home, because stylistically, there are fewer examples like this LP these days. You get groove, a lot of dirty, chunky riffs that also offer harmonic detours and the sci-fi artwork is as always, welcomed. Yes, European acts release a lot of similar conceptual stuff, yet a lot it’s dumbed down to suit all casual masses of fans or simply don’t have the same feel (for me at least). I am aware there is a pattern with this kind of records too, however, it sounds as if ripped from the '90s, when the quality was arguably better overall in most cases (or maybe I'm just getting old :(). There’s more fun than innovation to be heard here, but then again, from a genre beaten to death lately, this is a big plus. Plus, I got to learn something about indigenous tribes from Tierra del Fuego, so at least you can give it a spin while reading about the respective area & folk.
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Album Rating: 3.7
It's been a while since I spammed people with stoner rock albums. Here's one for the hot summer!
Stream/buy it here: http://demonauta.bandcamp.com/
Or stream here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmoVcMXntxY
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Scorching (European) summer desert rock...
*my two cents on the summary haha
Will read/check the album asap
| | | Album Rating: 3.7
Yeah, we're burning here
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^^Northern Greece was ok though, rained every day from May to July, go figure haha.
August burns the land as expected, though.
| | | Album Rating: 3.7
I saw it went really bad around Athens, but was it man provoked? (this was the last update mentioned here)
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^^From what I've read in the local press, authorities have apprehended one suspect, but, to the best of my knowledge, no further/relevant news updates have emerged the moment this post is written.
The real estate development in the scorched lands around Athens was severely malignant, with no safe exits out of the forests or to the sea; on their part, the authorities were largely unprepared for the timely evacuation of the population residing at those premises, whereas the magnitude and kinetics of the fire, were gravely miscalculated.
The above said, the weather didn't help too. In contrast to Northern Greece, it didn't rain much in the south (if not at all), and with the high temperatures in the area this time of year, the authorities should have been on high alert 24/7.
This fire in Athens was remarkably similar to the wildfires in California, in terms of magnitude and propagation rate.
| | | Album Rating: 3.7
This sucks to hear, but probably very few people cared about a situation like this when they started building in that area. Given the fact that the temperatures are rising every year, such a hazard should be taken into consideration.
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I live in the center of US and it's a constant 90+ degrees Fahrenheit with awful humidity. The artwork for this is gorgeous.
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Just read the review while listening to the album, and I fully agree, these Chileans are far from the average desert/stoner rock band.
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Didn't love the vocal delivery, but the instrumentals are great.
Always good to find new stoner bands.
Gonna listen a bit more, but from my experience with it so far, the review and rating are spot on.
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good shit will hit the whole album later
| | | Album Rating: 3.7
Thanks! Yeah, unlike Europe, in Chile or Argentina there's more quality over quantity at this point
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
yap rating is spot on...nice review too. The vocals are great imo. Also dig the changes of pace within the songs. And its not too long which makes it an easy listen that sometimes is an obstacle in the genre imo. I have a cool and fun 4 for this one.
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Did you find this on the Stoned Meadow of Doom YouTube channel as well? Gave it a short jam and liked what I heard, can never have enough summer stoner rock
| | | Album Rating: 3.7
I saw the post when they released the album on Bandcamp, but I guess it was uploaded on every channel on Youtube haha. I was looking a few days ago, there are so many records on the Stoned Meadow of Doom channels lol, I'd need weeks to check them.
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Yep that channel is incredible and whoever is behind it is a music god (he even has a second channel where he uploads even more albums) but I really only ever check a few that I like the album art for
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Chicago's been pretty nice most of the time actually (surprisingly)
| | | Album Rating: 3.7
@BenThatsMyJamin - From what I read he isn't that nice. He asks (or asked at least) for exclusivity when it comes to full streams and he used reviews from several sites as descriptions for his uploads and didn't credit anyone, which is dumb. There was a backlash from the blogging community and I agree. Why not credit the person who wrote the reviews? It's just a name and link you add. Anyway, from what I saw, there are pros and cons when working with him. Still, he helped a lot of bands become bigger over night.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
This is aight
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