SHARING THE SACRED

Distorted raw guitars and noises open the album in a trashy, careless style. Rest of the band is joining lazily in behind, growing tension in a way not very pleasing to listen in my opinion. On following longer "Bone Fire" two dirty-sounded guitars search the tune for some time, after the rhythm section joins for the collective smash. Third track "Seven Tongues" has cleaner oriental sitar sounds, and this this minimalistic refreshed the listening experience for me quite much. The last song "Malta" is longest here, little over 20 minutes, but I think they fail to find the parrot... A dull voyage to stoned wanderings fades in, the rhythm feels quite uncertain and the guitar solos are very messy, level of aggression slowly grows to really crazy heights, creating two long waves of gaining and reduction of pressure, finally ending the record by bidding farewells via some bells chimes. Certainly this is impulsive, raw and true music, but not very pleasant to listen in my opinion. I do not like very much the dominant heavier side of the sound, though I can appreciate certain heavier tunes too, very much actually. Also there is not much musical content in the long songs, nor that kind of creativity which would please my own subjective taste, allowing euphoric ecstasy via successful repetitive hypnotism. Devoted fans of stoner rock and noise influenced music might wish to check this out, and I admit there is promise in the style as it's sincere and "true", but not pleasing trip for me. Instead their following "The Stone Sentinels" record was, and I would recommend it instead.

My first impression of ALASEHIR; Sleep is heavier than Sir Lord Baltimore, Om is more heavier than Sleep, and ALASEHIR is much more heavier than Om ... (all are from United States)

Wait a moment, guess everyone may emphasize their heavy, dark, depressive noise shower but again ask myself what their musical key element is? Hmm, not heaviness, not darkness, nor depression (!) ... sure that silkily ethnic (especially Indo or Oriental) touch, they can shoot glimpse of which, should be the core of ALASEHIR. Suppose you may think it's quite the opposite ... indeed, their heaviness, darkness, distortion, depression previously mentioned are very powerful and aggressive for almost all of listeners. However believe me they are not simply a heavy metal outfit but of extreme psychedelia magnified with their Oriental soundscape. Of course, NOT only electric sitar solo in the third track Seven Tongues can let me mention so. Through the whole Sharing The Sacred, we can hear their delicate (but enjoyable for them) sound proceeding, over their complex (namely not simply heavy) and underground sounds flung against us.

Maybe cannot realize the silky touch without analytic listening but we can enjoy their heavy-dark-depressive sounds, not as a stoner progressive rock outfit but simple stoner rock one. Not on the mainstream so I cannot recommend ALASEHIR to all psychedelic progressive rock fans (and can give only two stars) but highly to all stoner rock fans, including me!