Sunday, May 15, 2016

El Doom & the Born Electric - Selftitled (2012)

The way I've set my mind around this very blog, makes it rare, really rare that I wrote a review before owning the actual album first, in physical or digital format, doesn't matter to me.

Let me introduce my daily routine. I start working too early, earlier than my colleagues, earlier than people in my hometown some 4,000 km away, earlier than people living on the other hemisphere. It's awesome as I get to listen to music all the time. The awful part is that due to some inexplicable condition I'm suffering from, I must change album lists often. It's called boredom. Thus, I literally listen to a shitload of albums every day, new, old, classic, unknown or famous it's really up to the moment. Some of them I buy.

Today I forgot refreshing my list. Damn! In despair I started searching on spotify and my eye landed on El Doom & the Born Electric. Stupid band name. I gave it a shot anyway, there was no time really. In the first couple minutes it occurred to me that this shares the metallic tendencies the Ghost are known for, minus the horrible pizza toppings. I hate Ghost. Anyhoo I was wrong. Not about the toppings.

Boy was I lucky though! As the songs played through I would be gradually falling for with it. I was hearing all those I've been so far grateful for: Rush, David Bowie, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Mars Volta, David Bowie again, Radiohead, Opeth, Tool, some 16 Horsepower agony. All these, in no particular order or magnitude, in such dosage and with such ardor that makes up for a totally unique release. God I LOVE EL DOOM. And the Born Electric no doubt! Add some heavy/power metal implications here and there, not the wanker kind though. This shit is progressive rock at its VERY finest! Why the hell was this unknown to me??

I shouldn't forget the stellar personnel here. Besides Ole Petter Andreassen, the mastermind, singer and guitar player, I was amazed to find out that Hedvig Mollestad is handling the hammond plus some guitar duties. Brynjar and Haavard Takle Ohr of El Cuero fame are present on guitar and drums respectively. The real cookie though is Nikolai Hængsle Eilertsen and Ståle Storløkken from Elephant9 on bass. Nikolai's among my fave bass players and Ståle is also in Supersilent and a conductor? I think. Ok. Psyched! Other guests include Mikael Lindquist on Mellotron and the monster Jon Eberson on guitar. Nuff said. ENOUGH!!

Listen to the magnificent closer and feel free to order this MASTERPIECE here. Oh and last but surely not least, El Doom are supposed to deliver their sophomore as of this year, 2016. Can't wait! Thanks Ole Petter!

UPDATE: You know an album is a classic one when each day a different track dominates your speakers and you eagerly await for your vinyl copy, even though no turntable is available.

No comments:

Post a Comment