Spectral Haze – Demo 2012

Spectral Haze - Demo 2012Right, well today I present to you a spanking new space-rock/jam band. No, don’t go away, these guys are actually GOOD! They’ve written songs, honest! OK, facetious introduction aside, this isn’t another run-of-the-mill space-rock/jam band. There’s a lot of folks that churn out unimaginative shit of this ilk with zero development or depth involved. 73 pedals, one half-arsed riff, NO SONGS. However, I’m delighted to say that this is a problem that Oslo’s Spectral Haze do not suffer from, consisting of a pedigree that includes members of Purple Hill Witch, Resonaut and High Priest Of Saturn (all excellent new Norwegian bands that you need to check out, bollocks to sub-par black metal!).

The demo opens up with a dose of speed and riff drenched in reverb and delay, firmly in the vein of The Flower Travellin’ Band or Can, with its out-of-control vocals, whoops and repetitive, mantra-like riffs, punctuated with heavy-as-hell, raunchy melodies and licks straight out of Leaf Hound’s book of funk! Special credit to the absolutely stellar drums, a delightful head-nod of rolling (yet jazzy!) thunder and fills to make you grin from ear-to-ear! “Kali Magick” starts off with a lurch and outer-space effects, but thankfully the band haven’t fallen into the all-too-easy trap of having it go on for more than a few minutes – after all, it’s piss-easy to do and only works as an intro to a song, not a twenty minute ambient workout (zzzz) – and so, it’s back to the speedy riffs and licks! More Cactus than Vitus, these lads are clearly taking influence more from the Seventies than the heaviness that came after!

The band slow down considerably for “Kashf (Gaining Familiarity with Things Hidden Behind the Veils)” – apart from being the song in which the band appear to be trying to give Keiji Haino a run for his money in the “daft and inexplicably long song titles that make you chuckle” stakes, this is a song that betrays the band’s listening palate stretching beyond the murk of 1979 – a crawling blues-rock space-out number in the tradition of the mighty Goatsnake! Long time since I’ve heard a band even attempt to do this, and it works fantastically, winding its spell over the listener with deliriously over-the-top vocals and playing tighter than a duck’s arse, which then dissolves/collapses into the epic closer that is “Tribe Of The Cosmic Crow Giant” – more experimentation with scales outside of the standard pentatonic make this a rewarding listen and add an exotic flavour to an already very distinctive-sounding band. In fact, I think it’s not too early to say this Norwegian quartet have succeeded in recording the demo of the year. These guys are destined for great things, in Europe and beyond. Death to piss-weak psych that blasphemes at the altar of Hawkwind – LISTEN TO SPECTRAL HAZE.

Label: Self Released
Website: www.facebook.com/SpectralHaze

Scribed by: Saúl Do Caixão