Throughout the last decade, the rock world has experienced a renaissance in psychedelic alt-rock. Expanding upon the brave new world it presented to the listeners in its 1960s genesis, bands such as King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard and Psychedelic Porn Crumpets have brought forth a rebirth of imagination in a genre already known for its forward-thinking experimentation.
Upon this wave rides DOOM GONG. This cutting-edge band from Louisville, Kentucky, carries a new interpretation of neo-psychedelia that ranks them among some of the most exciting bands in the genre.
The band delivers an anticipated end to a trilogy in their new album, MEGAGONG, which hit streaming in August, and vinyl via Romanus Records this month.
More than your average art-rock LP, this album displays a level of diversity and technical sorcery few bands in their scene can match. The record combines influences from synth-pop, progressive rock, hardcore punk, and psych-rock to create an LP that throws the listener into the ebbs and flows of interdimensional space and time.
Early in the record is "Never Crossed My Mind." This song, along with its companions on the first third of the LP, displays more of DOOM GONG'S pop influence. It's an otherworldly, ever-shifting introduction to the record's wide, expansive soundscape. Considering the raw intensity of the later tracks, the band brings an impressive display of diversity here in crafting a track with this much detail and discipline.
As the listener is acquainted with the various unfolding melodies, the lyrical themes also begin to manifest. "How would we know what's real / if not for a real goodbye?" asks vocalist John Anderson. It's an excellent question, one that opens up the record's contemplations on limited time bringing meaning to the world's beauty.
After the album's opening triad of wondrous synth-pop songs comes "The Future is a Choice." By this point, the record begins to introduce its noisier influences. This song is tried-and-true psych-rock, from its crashing cymbals to its anthemic, hazy guitar riffs. Where some bands would be content with the raw surprise of the sudden noise, DOOM GONG takes things a step further through a multi-phased approach to their songwriting.
The song alternates beautifully between its anthemic, new age instrumental hook and slower passages emphasizing the existential terror of the lyrics. Through hazy, darkly filtered vocals, Anderson sings, "The rhythm of time tends to push / And accelerate faster and faster." The terror of an uncertain future oozes out of this song's whole composition.
Just when the listener thinks the band has exhausted all their tricks, the track "Annihilator" crashes in. This song is an intensely ferocious take on psych-rock, pulling from hardcore punk to create a twisting nightmare. The song breaks right out of the gate with snarling guitar riffs hellbent on destruction. It's as if the band has become a swarm of wasps programmed only to kill their prey.
"Annihilator" is the strongest example of what distinguishes DOOM GONG from their peers in the modern psych-rock scene. Very few bands can pull off this kind of aggression after bathing the listener in synth-pop only two or three tracks earlier. The brashness of this song sounds as rich as it does abrasive, and it's a song that synthesizes the raw energy of punk with the tasteful attention to detail of art-rock.
Then there's "Doom Gong III": the record's ultimate climax. In classic prog rock tradition, the song is the completion of a trilogy of songs (the previous two appearing in previous releases) with each one building upon the next. The jam is eight minutes long and brings a whole new sense of scale to the record. It is easily the most "progressive" song of the entire record. The winding strikes of guitar echo the whirling complexities of classic prog from way back in the 1970s. From its beginnings in thumping riffs of truly metal destruction, to its every-building, lightning fast rising melodies, this is the closer that this album deserves.
A new peak in psych-rock is upon us, and DOOM GONG is here to announce itself with more intensity, genre-diversity, and production expertise than many others. Expressing the pure insanity of man's relationship to time within a flurry of sonic excellence, these guys are taking their craft to a whole new level.
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