Sons Of Otis
Songs For Worship
The Music Cartel
It’s awe-inspiring to behold, at times, how massively tunnel-visioned some bands, especially in the doom/sludge/stoner metal milieu, can get. Like Sons Of Otis. Massive in every sense of the word, tunnel-visioned much more so, these Sons render Songs For Worship, their third LP thus far, an exercise in sonic defiance, the trio locking onto the most time-expanding/obliterating elements of Electric Wizard’s Dopethrone [provide link to my review earlier this year?] sludge masterpiece and stretching them beyond and back around time itself, finding a continuum where you can’t find your way out nor ever want to, basically because the only option you’re given is defeat, black clouds of tar-choked smoke billowing forth the size of a tornado to ensnare and stifle any sense of reason left in your gray matter. Fuzz on the guitar, fuzz on the bass • the two blending into each other, often and indistinguishably • probably fuzz on the drums, and definitely fuzz on the vocals • which are more of an afterthought and instrument onto itself, acting more like another effects pedal than anything else • Sons Of Otis trudge n’ sludge through the album’s seven songs in a mere 37 minutes, that time actually feeling more like 37 hours given how mono-chromatic and -riffic these bong-worshiping songs are. But, hey • I’m not arguing. Best of part of it all, perhaps, is that the trio’s from Toronto, once again proving that Canadian metalheads have access to the best drugs around (for further evidence, see Voivod, DBC, Gorguts, Cryptopsy, Kataklysm, Martyr, Obliveon•). Songs For Worship, fuckin’ A.
The Music Cartel, PO Box 629, Port Washington, NY 11050; http://www.music-cartel.com, http://www.sonsofotis.com
