DOMKRAFT

A lot of people have expended a lot of energy trying to conjure the ultimate blend of huge riffs and psychedelic adventure. From HAWKWIND to UFOMMAMUT, this noble endeavor has produced some extraordinary music, along with a lot of slightly mediocre stuff that we need not concern ourselves with here. When it comes to the modern era, DOMKRAFT are solid contenders for most outstanding SABBATH-ian space cadets.

Over the course of three increasingly brilliant studio albums, the Swedes have outclassed all competition through the sheer quality of their riffs and, more importantly, the impossibly thunderous levels of overdriven noise that these three men have under their loose-limbed control. On their fourth album, DOMKRAFT travel even further into alien realms and resistance will prove to be gloriously futile.

Firstly, "Sonic Moons" is ridiculously heavy. Not since KYUSS filled the room with the billowing riff clouds of "Sky Valley" has a band of similar stripe sounded so ferociously live and untamed. The bottom end on this thing is borderline dangerous. The swell of freaked-out guitars often threatens to overwhelm everything else, but the drums always retain their punch. Closer to the wild space rock of AMON DUUL II, LOOP and early MONSTER MAGNET than to more conventional stoner fare, the opening "Whispers" conspires to light up the heavens over an imperious, glacial shuffle. "Stellar Winds" is highly evolved stoner rock with balls of steel, while "Magnetism" is a brooding mystery tour through amorphous landscapes of distortion and echo.

The previously released "Slowburner" comes closest to fulfilling a more conventional brief, but DOMKRAFT play these simple riffs with such conviction that they become hypnotic far quicker than expected. As it dissolves into a trippy jam, "Slowburner" rolls and rumbles with the aforementioned KYUSS-like command, with every sonic inch thrumming and sparking with barely contained power. In contrast, "Downpour" homes in on DOMKRAFT's lighter side, with verses that flutter woozily in the wind and choruses that go for the throat. Although almost overpowered by wave after wave of whooshing sonic scree, the song's gnarly central riff is one of this band's sharpest hooks yet. On "Black Moon Rising", the Stockholm trio allow imagination to take over, as a throbbing, urgent groove fights its way through a disorientating feedback squall. On "The Big Chill", DOMKRAFT embrace a little of OM's mystic motorik, thudding away on a monotone, post-punk riff as all lysergic hell erupts around them. One mid-song blossoming later, and the Swedes are gaining speed and spiraling off into the kaleidoscopic distance, with all the exquisite wah-wah worship any paisley-shirted acid casualty could possibly require. One further change of pace reduces everything back down to the treacly essence of doom, before a surprisingly emotional final crescendo of heavyweight, red-eyed riffing and disembodied howls into the void.

In an overpopulated riff-swamp, DOMKRAFT continue to stand apart. Weed stash and psychedelic light shows both remain optional, but if you fancy travelling to where the real stoners get their kicks, "Sonic Moons" is already registered as the only credible soundtrack for the journey. This one goes far out.