BLACK OM RISING

SEVEN THAT SPELLS is a band out of Croatia who began playing more of a Space Rock style even being on the Russian label R.A.I.G. for a couple of albums before changing their style radically on 2008's "Black Om rising". Colour me surprised the first time I spun this expecting some sort of Psychedelia and instead getting a blend of Post Rock/ Math Rock with some heavy and complex music. The wild card is the sax but it's not used as much as on 2010's "Future Retro Spasm" which is an insane album and my favourite by the band. Anyway this record has been re-issued the most so it has it's fans. Mastered by the legendary Tatsuya Yoshida who I'm sure appreciates the complexity and power. A four piece here and they never have the same lineup at least up to 2010. The guitarist adds synths while we also get bass, drums and sax.

"Fluxion" is a killer opener with the electronics to start before guitar and swirling synths join in followed by drums then bass before a minute. Bass solo before 4 minutes. A top three has to be "Ra" with the opening tribal drumming and pulsing sounds as other beats come and go. So cool sounding. Sax kicks in sounding great and it's screaming before 3 minutes. We get a three part "Lo" series with "Lo III" being another top three. Love that heavy rhythm section as the sax drones over top. Sax is ripping it up later and the bass is huge as it usually is. "Daktari" is my final top three opening with a seventies Jazz vibe but it's drowned by an avalanche of power including Post-Rock guitars. Check out the bass work before 2 minutes with those guitar expressions. Powerful atmosphere as well. The closer has a lot of soundscape stuff but it's kind of cool how it gets louder as it plays out. It does open with some powerful sounding bass, guitar and drums before it turns spacey at 2 1/2 minutes.

I'm looking forward to spending some time with "Future Retro Spasm" in a couple of weeks where they amp it up even more. Easily 4 stars.