Astral Blessing - Hymn to Betrayal
Polyamory 11.02.06 by Keith Boyd
Great big weird sounds of freedom! Astral Blessing sends forth a searchlight of excavating tone and power. This beam of sound sprouts tentacles that burrow deep into your lobes and take root. “Hymn to Betrayal” is an all too short blast that flames off from the get go.
Astral Blessing is a group comprised of members from such audio oddball ensembles as Sunburned Hand of the Man, Aethr Mythd and Hildegard. While these units have their moments, these guys together bubble up a glorious hot lava of relentless sound. It's a dark propulsive and psychedelic chug that would sit nicely on any of the early Can discs or at least keep good company with some of Hawkwind’s denser moments.
How do you describe the power and tonality of noise? It’s not very easy to do much less actually take sometimes but there is always a generous amount of sonic matter to digest amidst a clump of noise. Unleashed from the confines of melody and rhythm sound spreads out and flexes it’s muscles a bit. Astral Blessing takes this expansiveness and while occasionally giving it free reign, harnesses it into a thick, writhing anaconda ready to strike at your mind.
This disc is a super short (18 minutes only!) sharp shot of a band in full technicolor flight. As it churns to a close it leaves the listener in a stupor with smoke wafting out of their ears chanting, “More! More! More!”.