Om - God is Good

With Al Cisneros of Sleep (and new metal supergroup Shrinebuilder, of which I am very very excited) on bass, Emil Amos of Grails on drums, all round genius/God Steve Albini on recording/ producing duties and the fact that the previous Om album was a concrete slab of experimental stoner doom, this album, you could say, has promise.

Opener (and first half of the album, clocking in at over 19 minutes) Thebes beings with droning tambura, and a dry bass groove, sounding somewhere between Ravi Shankar and Tool. Al’s chanted vocals slide in at around 3 minutes, weaving a dark web of neo psychedelia. Drums and piano are sparsely added through the remaining first half of the song. At around 8 minutes, the bass grows a pair and fuzzes up, and the drums fully enter the fold, and the stoner dirge that Om are known for finally starts to roll from the speakers. It generally continues in this lumbering fashion until fade out. I somehow imagine if I was, shall we say, “under the skinfluence”, I would be enjoying this a lot more. Maybe I should just invest in some Hawaiian shirts, aviators, grow a handlebar muz and go with the flow?

In all honesty, second track, Meditation is the Practice of Death, brings very little to the table, except for the brief solo and a smattering of somewhat out of place flute, which take the band is an almost Bardo Pond meandering. Cremation Ghat I has a far faster pace, and at points backing vocals which bring back memories of Pink Floyd’s Great Gig in the Sky. At only 3 minutes, the song fails to cover any ground and is in essence fairly pointless seeing as it leads in Cremation Ghat II (why not have just one long song?!).

Cremation Ghat II reinstalls the Indian feel from the start of the album, and also a Live at Pompeii era Pink Floyd sound, but less epically spacey. Bleak strings are also added which increases the already sombre tone.

God is Good is by no means a bad album, but it still leaves me disappointed. Maybe I just built it up too much in my head, I don’t know, but by any means it leaves me feeling empty.

Not available on Spotify

Andy