Camel of Doom
Terrestrial
(Solitude Productions)
England’s sand-planet sludge makers Camel of Doom invest their time into pace. Their journey relies on connection: they way they line up tensions accurately in tight quadrants. Given that their sound is extremely glacial, this is an important construct to their success. It makes the long and often extended passages the band wades in, worth the wait. It’s slow psychedelia, concerned with the outer reaches of the infinite, heavy-laden with Hawkwind, Neurosis, and Pink Floyd hues. This connection to those proto and first wave doom bands, more than likely, directs the sense of immediacy for symbiosis. Their new album Terrestrial is a long, slow burner, at times wavering, but mostly solid with ribbons of fancy hidden out there in the deep reaches. You just have to get out there.
There’s also a distinct darkness to the band. They polish a bleak orb on their monstrous journey, channeling space rock and experimental death metal. Usually, it’s a musical, dense, and somewhat nightmarish darkness they delve in, but the band manages to collapse upon its own gloom at times, mostly when drifting away from the platforms that connect the intense shade they dwell in. It’s here they seem lost, wavering, grasping for air, and stretching for something. But the riffs are the over-glue that paces the whole ship, and the really cool synths add a dimension that truly spaces things out. And for all the tripping and extending, when things coalesce, the sound is immediate and fresh. Like on ‘Sleeper Must Awaken”, which fuses all the band’s strengths and provisions, and accurately describes ascension.
“Singularity” is a San Francisco born meditation: diving deep in art doom, with echo calls and trance yelps. This song has a strong backbone, dwelling in an environment that supports its habitation. “Euphoric Slumber” makes its admission too early, evading connection, though the bass work is progressive and neat. It does swerve trippingly when it gets way out there, and perhaps the band’s pace and accuracy is simply a matter of catching up, in reverse, backwards. Terrestrial is something to trip out to deep into the night, you may lose it, or you may find that dark nirvana, but either way, it’s definitely worth figuring out.
