Ελληνικά
Last Updated on 09:46 AM by Giorgos Tsekas
Genre: Avant-garde/Doom
Country: Canada
Label: I Hate Records
Year: 2014
Zaum is a form of language that allows humans to communicate in a higher level. The language of the gods and stars… And at the same time a really fitting name for this Canadian caravan/band.
Canada has created a tradition in producing “odd” bands. And by releasing their debut album “Oracles”, Zaum have become a part of that tradition. The band consists of only two members. Kyle Alexander McDonald, who is the bassist/singer of Shevil and does pretty much everything on this album (vocals, bass, sitar textures and synth)and Christopher Lewis, the singer of Iron Giant, who plays the drums.
The first thing that someone may notice while listening to this album is the total absence of the sound of guitars. Guitars are only used to create sitar sounds but this doesn’t affect at all the overall heaviness of this album. Besides McDonald has already received his PhD on how to create heavy sounding music without using guitars at Shevil, a band that comprises of three bass players (!!!) and a drummer and sounds like a bear sing-along to Eternal Elysium’s music.
Of course Zaum’s music is far more low-key and will probably remind you of bands like Om and Bong. -“Eastern” scales- oriented doom, a lot of drone and ambient elements, chanting vocals and a general minimal aesthetic. Lyric-wise, although “Oracles” is not a concept album, all songs share a common subject matter and refer to the Middle East (300BC – 600AD).
And this album’s greatest success is that the combination of music/lyrics/artwork really takes you to places like the one that’s illustrated on the cover. What’s also really great about this album is that it includes only four songs (which last for about fifty minutes). If an album contains more music it usually tends to get tiring for the listener instead of offering something more.
But “Oracles” has also two obvious weaknesses. The arrangements are pretty poor and during the 80% of the album all the instruments play the exact same pieces and as a result the songs sometimes sound a bit flat. But let’s say we get past this… “Omen”, which is the album’s last song, sounds like a repetition of everything you have heard on this album up to that point and eventually gets really boring. You may say “come on, it’s just one song”. Well, that one song is the ¼ of this whole album!
Even though “Oracles” has these weaknesses, it’s still a really interesting album, just not the kind that will give you the chills. You should check it out though.
4/6
