EP REVIEW: Shambhallic Vibrations – Lunar Chamber
Humour us for a second and let us play a game. We are going to give you five words and you then imagine what a record based on those five words would sound like. Ready? Enlightenment. Crystalline. Meditation. Illumination. Ascension. Sounds dreamy, doesn’t it? Bet you could hear waterfalls and chirping birds and the ethereal hum of life, the universe and everything. Well we could too when we received Shambhallic Vibrations, the new EP from LUNAR CHAMBER. And then we pressed play.
LUNAR CHAMBER is a mysterious collective dedicated to the art of “progressive death/doom from the spiritual planes” and offers this debut pilgrimage with a difference. Instead of kumbayas and wind chimes, there are guttural roars and blast beats; in place of babbling brooks and wind in the grass, there are face-melting guitar solos and massive riffs. In fairness, for many of us here at Distorted Sound, that’s the ultimate form of relaxation anyway.
Spirit Body And The Seeing Self doesn’t take long to devolve from soothing atmospherics to apocalyptic racket, and provides our first real look at what the quartet is capable of. The dual vocals and guitars of Timeworn Nexus and They, Who Must Not Be Perceived (yes, those are the names of the band members) are restless and multi-faceted, while the squelching fretless bass of Æther Lotus and the drumming of K. Paradis cut through and manage the madness in equal measure.
There are little pockets of calm throughout this EP, namely in Intro (Shambhallic Vibrations) and Interlude (Ancient Sage) that provide a safe haven from the aural storm that has descended upon you. These are fleeting though and you are soon thrown back into the maelstrom. Closing song III. Crystalline Blessed Light Flows… From Violet Mountains Into Lunar Chambers accounts for nearly half of the total EP runtime and goes full prog, complete with shamanic chanted passages, instrumentation that goes from effervescent to eviscerating, and blistering solos that show off the full extent of the band’s talents.
As debut releases go, LUNAR CHAMBER are setting off on the right foot. Shambhallic Vibrations is a very strange release and perhaps too strange for many death-doom fans, but once you spend some time with it, the progressive elements can be seen as intricate layers rather than confusing obstacles. Now cross your legs, find your inner sanctum and lose yourself in the music.
Rating: 7/10
Shambhallic Vibrations is set for release on April 28th via 20 Buck Spin.
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