Review: Megalith Levitation ‘Obscure Fire’
Russian acid doom lords Megalith Levitation first spouted forth from their home of Chelyabinsk (yup, apocalyptic meteor town) in 2016 with their debut Acid Doom Rites, but I only really got a taste for their rumbling, trippy offerings on 2021’s Void Psalms. The band have groaned back to life with Obscure Fire, their newest full length out now in a joint release through Aesthetic Death, Addicted Label and Sounds Of Karacun.
When you hear that first riff start to tremor from your speaker, you know you’re in for something pretty psychedelic and when that massive groaning riff crashes down and trance-inducing vocals drift in the background, it has begun. Megalith Leviation are masters at keeping the really fucking heavy, caveman doom riffs crushing you all the way through while drenching everything in acid trip psychedelia, without losing the essence of either.
You can feel the very blood of Sleep running through these veins, especially when those riffs drift off into the ether and are replaced with dreamy, hazy ambience on Of Silence. There’s a distant drone of guitar lurking here somewhere, moving just beyond the fuzz, and it gradually dips back into drone behind ghostly vocals. What I do like is the darker, insistent close to Of Silence, where the trip is starting to go bad, and the dark recesses of your mind are starting to throw up images of your worst nightmares.
If you are into massive riffs, trippy atmospheres and doom that’ll put you straight into a welcoming, yet slightly dark haze, this is the record for you…
Descending drags an old Electric Wizard riff from the grave and churns it into an increasingly occult-like vocal performance before Into The Depth ups the ante, turning out a gut-wrenching doom masterpiece. This is the trippiest, broken acid doom you’ll ever hear; strange sound effects phase in and out while an almost traditional doom feeling imbues me with a warming sense of familiarity amongst the weirdness. In the same way smoke can be drawn from fire, Megalith Levitation draw riffs from the void of eternal darkness and weave them into massive grooves and ghostly melody lines.
As closing track Of Eternal Doom swoons its way to its hypnotic, void-skirting end, I feel like Obscure Fire is the album where Megalith Levitation have put all the pieces together to form a coherent, well-written and perfectly executed record. If you are into massive riffs, trippy atmospheres and doom that’ll put you straight into a welcoming, yet slightly dark haze, this is the record for you. Eternal doom? Sounds good to me.
Label: Aesthetic Death | Addicted Label | Sounds Of Karachun
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram
Scribed by: Sandy Williamson
