Cardinal Wyrm
Cast Away Souls
(Svart Records)
Cardinal Wyrm is some really heavy stoner fuzz gloom. Cast Away Souls will cast you away on a sonic space trip through interstellar graveyards. Cardinal Wyrm honor the traditional elements of the doom metal maelstrom, a simple combination of punk riffs and melodramatic sad atmospheres, with some old fashion ’70s trippy rock & roll outlandish journey pulling all of the music forward into a hypnotic trance.
The back and forth vocals of Pranjal Tiwari and Hammers of Misfortune guitarist and vocalist Leila Abdul-Rauf really work well together, setting fires throughout the album that you couldn’t miss even if you’re super super stoned. Leila adds a very viscous touch to the hymns Cardinal Wyrm.
Half way through the album, Cardinal Wyrm give us a soft rest with the very mellow and sleep inducing “Lost Orison”. This is a good track to just chill on the journey with some brownies and milk, and then get set for the final parts into “Soul Devouring Fog”. Sometimes you have to wonder if tracks like that are listed with such fine titles in just the right spot, because of moments just like this, where you find yourself chewing on a brownie at 3:05 AM wondering how you’re going to escape the doom of the apocalyptic industrial nightmare you are actually living in.
Anyway, if a really trippy adventure with a tight groove is what Cardinal Wyrm were trying to accomplish here, then I congratulate them. These six songs are pretty cool, and this California based trio do what California does best with this cosmic trippy shit. “After The Dry Years” is an ominous swansong that will lead you out into the horizon of cursed living.
