Review Summary: Pretty good surf doom
On their 2017 debut album, Lunar Funeral offers the seemingly unlikely combo of stoner-doom and surf music. The guitars play the leading role in realizing the vision, blending fuzzy progressions with sunny trills and bright ringing chords like an alternate Uncle Acid that picked up a Dick Dale acolyte. Contrary to what a title like Sex On A Grave would suggest, the otherworldly aura it exudes has the sort of dark and light clash that one would see on a beach in the middle of a thunderstorm.
So basically like the opening shot of that SpongeBob episode with the health inspector. You know the one.
While the guitars can overshadow the other musicians at times, they have their roles to play in terms of fleshing out the mood and floaty pacing. The vocals are peppered in distortion and blend into the background more often than that, less prioritizing memorable lines and more on serving the mood at hand. The drums are especially loose, not hitting all that hard but driving just enough to vibe with the fluctuating swells.
That looseness is also conveyed through the songwriting’s focus on hypnotic riffs and the tug o’ war that comes as particular tracks end up at different points on the surf-doom spectrum. The opening “Indian’s Death” introduces the gloomy psychedelic overcast while “Red Wine” and “You’re Nothing” hit darker stoner fuzz. Tracks like the title track, “Like You And I (Like A Knife),” and “The Lights” are where the blend hits its most synergetic points with their crawling tempos and weaving guitars. The closing “Suicide” is the closest that we see to a rousing tempo but I’m here for its almost post-punk bounce.
For how gimmicky Sex On A Grave could’ve been, its particular blend of heavy psych succeeds by virtue of its unassuming execution. While they could’ve done more to expand the formula on some fronts, the instrumentation is solid throughout and the structures are pleasant to listen to. Its loose nature makes for pleasant background listening while a mix of neat sounds and memorable dynamics that keep things from feeling too generic. At least getting out to the beach only for it to start raining can have a good soundtrack.
