Friday, September 13, 2013

... cult of the nefarious : FANGS OF THE MOLOSSUS ( Album Review)

Fangs Of The Molossus are a blackened psych-Doom metal band from Firenze - Italy. Formed in 2011 and actually consisting in  Acid King Khanjia (vocals & guitar), Amp Zilla (lead guitar & space FX), Count J. Vendetta (guitar & space FX), Daemon Nox (bass guitar) and Iako (drums), the band recently self-released a brilliant 5 track debut ...

I don't know what does the band's name suggest to you musically (?), but (wrongly) I was thinking about something sludgy and/or Metal, you know some kinda modern stuff that is massive, gnarly and biting... where - at my greatest surprise - the guys deliver an amazing form of occult and psyched-out Doom of the highest order !  Basically, the music is not particularly original, Electric Wizard being the most obvious influence and eventually Sleep/Om (at least vocally wise on "Cult of the Witch Goddess")   but quickly it shifts noticeably from the usual recipes which are overused for long years now with dense and repetitive loud downtuned riffage.

Drawing-out a slow, haunting dirge on Caligula, Fangs of the Molossus open this album with  allowing time for an evil buzz to ferment. The agonizing restraint is paired with an expansive malevolence. Murderous guitar exploration succumbs to enveloping fuzz creeping from any and every direction. The drone never totally dominates but never totally disappears, even when the band crosses the psychedelic paths of sonic dementia! 


Dissonant, harsh and hauntingly blackened bits regularly let place to lead-driven mid paced occult sounding prog jams who give substantial  variations in the moods and a more audacious (even improvisational at times) musicality, where Death SS, Swans, Hawkind and Celtic Frost are other references shining alternatively.


Coming from Italy almost gives duties in terms of dark and solemn moods and on that point the band doesn't dissappoint at any second; certainly is this a Doom Metal seance soaked with innovative stylistic marriages but also and prominently with an emphasis on dark and nefarious atmospheres !!! On two songs, the band invited some Necromass members (a longtime-running black metal band from Italy), Ain Soph Aour does a part of vocals on "I drink your Blood" - while JC Chaos brings some soloing on "Dead King Rise" - but shit how many guitars on this last one ? the band already consists of three guitarists !!! in any cases those guests presence is overpowering the strangeness and aesthetic blackness of the overall.


Definitely is this rich and captivating; I dig this gloomy deepness, heavy, rough and surprisingly vile for the genre, thanx to the complementing diversity of the guitars, those creepy keyboards and  wickedly obsessive vocals... Something that adds cream on the top of the cake and is not to be forgot - are the intriguing voice samples encircling the yet frightening landscapes, including especially the long interlude "O Fera Flagella" that drowns you in a majestic Lynchian  eeriness. 


Damn, how good this album is, really... !  it leaves on me such a striking mark, that I would easily place it in the TOP 3 of 2013 for those productive landscapes from the other side of the Alpes - accompanied by Abysmal Grief's "Feretri" and Nibiru's "Caosgon" !!! Urgently recommended... 


https://www.facebook.com/fangsofthemolossus







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