ALBUM REVIEW: Low City Drone – Deadly Vipers
The word dystopian gets thrown around a lot these days, as we live in a seemingly never ending episode of Netflix’s Black Mirror. As we dream of our own paradises and utopias, DEADLY VIPERS have embraced their dystopia and given it a hard-hitting and intensely visceral soundtrack. The French rockers hail from the city of Perpignan in the heart of the plain of Roussillon, at the foot of the Pyrenees, a deeply inspiring landscape that infuses its unique flavours throughout the band’s music. They carry on the exuberant and rich style of French stoner fuzz rock which has been pioneered by the likes of Bordeaux’s MARS RED SKY. Low City Drone sees the band channel their doomier side as they offer up an introspective vision of their dystopian future.
Using their catchy, mammoth riffs as the rocket fuel for their interstellar engines, DEADLY VIPERS take on you on a journey through the haze-filled cosmos. Unafraid to go into hyperspace with bombastic, jet-engine drums and heavy bass fuzz, you have to buckle in tight throughout Low City Drone. Compared the band’s debut release, 2018’s Fueltronaut, DEADLY VIPERS have streamlined their sound for maximum velocity. While the album still contains their bombastic, signature riffing, you see them venture into more layered, psychedelic atmospheres, dusty desert rock guitar melodies and imposing half time grooves that are usually more prevalent in doom.
This conglomeration of sounds from across the desert rock, doom and stoner spectrum wrapped up in DEADLY VIPERS‘ fluid style is a strong step forward for the French outfit. Throughout Low City Drone you are treated to a vast array of rich compositions; gritty and earthy, every element gets straight to the point and doesn’t waste time in bringing you in with its luscious catchy grooves, constantly shifting dynamics and intriguing melodic hooks.
With that in mind, it is easy to become engulfed in the dystopian reality that the band have created through their music. As the drones fly over head and Big Brother listens in on your thought crimes, there is a set of contrasting emotions throughout the album. One set is melancholic despair; all hope is lost and you’re stuck within a mechanised purgatory of which there is no possible escape, the other set is that of hopeful emancipation from the machine. With the latter in mind, Low City Drone places you somewhere between humanity’s last, gasping breath and the reconstruction of a new future, one significantly more enlightened and positive. As far as concepts go, DEADLY VIPERS have captured the essence of what it is to be alive in these unprecedented times. Whilst it is nowhere near as bleak or hostile as an Orwellian novel, it is a cautious tale that reminds us of the decisions we have to make, united as one for the next generation.
The album commences on a sombre note; Echoes From Wasteland sets a scene of a city encased in its own atmospheric biome but surrounded by desert. It is in this instance that we are met with the band’s first big riffs, hulking and doomy intermingled with psychedelic atmospherics. Launching into Atom we hear the first of the many captivating and soaring vocal melodies that transcend the album. They take on a traditional metal style with a bit of grit, which is something that works incurably well with their compositions. The title track hits as hard as a freight train, bringing in a humongous stoner riff. The song moves through a variety of phases over its nine minute duration – a demonstration of the band’s further exploration into psychedelia.
Welli Welloo will get you pulling the groove face as you bob your head, an all out stoner rock anthem that ramps up the energy halfway through the album. Meteor Part II follows a similar template but has a darker vibes, nonetheless keeping the energy levels high as you imagine yourself speeding through the cosmos. Last Rise opens up like a hymn sung in a galactic church; soaring vocal harmonies send chills up your spine and then the song thunders along into the equally turbulent Ego Trip. Album closer Big Empty is everything you love in a desert rock track, a slow hypnotic opening gradually evolving into fuzzy leads and a psychedelic verse akin to Planet Caravan. It is by far the stand out song on Low City Drone, encapsulating the whole vibe of the album before exploding into life with SABBATH-style riffs as our escape pod breaks out of the aforementioned biome.
Low City Drone has an enigmatic magic surrounding it. It is immersive, powerful and captivating from start to finish. Telling a visceral story that feels like a comfort blanket in these strange times of ours, this is a truly epic sophomore album from DEADLY VIPERS.
Rating: 9/10
Low City Drone is set for release on September 30th via Fuzzorama Records.
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