Acid Mothers Temple and the Cosmic Inferno - Starless and Bible Black Sabbath (Alien8) 09.12.06 by Eric Nielsen
Godzilla footsteps start the album. Slowly entering the first minute of the record are the steps and then a few hits on the gong. A moment of chanting, some feedback and we're into the riff that will perpetuate the whole of this 34 minute song. Right away you get most of the elements of the heavy groove. Tabata's deeply buried vocals, Hiroshi's crytal clear synth, the buried double drums, the heavy heavy bass riff that haunts your sleep, that when you wake you hear, being pummeled and of course the master of psychadelic guitar, Kawabata on the wah pedal.

These footsteps and mind wanderings of the singer must be played loud, really loud, like the real monster was there. Like a devil that breathed fire was chasing you. Like you were driving into the thick fog in OB after being in the clear light only moments before. This Black Sabbath homage works. This cross pollination of Sabath, Godzilla, Japan and the occult melt your mind around another reality. You believe. Believe. Testify. Time melts away and the pillow becomes your grave. In the middle of the night you can be the synth, leave the guitar, relax back into the groove, feel the spaces, be the panning, struggle into the quiet double drums. You can imagine yourself there. And, there is where you want to be. This is the best live band on the planet and this record gives you a taste in your headphones when the band is halfway across the planet.

The masterful mixing, the relentless assault, the heavy groove are all reasons everyone should be fans. Tabata's singing on the title track coupled with the level it's mixed a make you wonder if Ozzy if guesting on the album. This songs stops and starts multiple times, each time the groove is reinvigorated with new synth, the vox and guitars. I love the drumming on this disc as well.

The second track sounds like some crazy speed metal/pinball game soundtrack/jefferson airplane on go fast drugs. The drumbeats per minute, the notes per bar, the synth all sound as if there is no tomorrow. The singing grounds the song in some form of 60's rock that you start to wrap your hands around and then is disintegrated. Godzillas cries finish the epic. There are only two tracks on this album and the title track is so amazing that it dwarfs "Woman From a Hell". It's supposed to.