Zozobra - Harmonic Tremors
(Hydra Head Records) Keith Boyd 02.21.07
The melodic and titanic Metal of the Bay Area’s mighty “Neurosis” has cast an enormous shadow over much of modern heavy music. They pretty much wrote the book on the sound. Their beautiful and damaged albums like “Through Silver in Blood” and ‘Times of Grace” are layered and rewarding listens.
Their music is a blueprint for much of what has come in its wake. The dense swaths of noise that build into gargantuan guitar riffs are cathartic and inspiring. The list of bands answering this calling and adding to it includes; Isis, Pelican, Red Sparowes and Old Man Gloom. Many of these bands either are or participate in side projects which are usually as interesting as the “real” bands the members play in. That is the case with Zozobra. They are a side project of Caleb Scofield and Santos Montano from Old Man Gloom.
Their new CD, “Harmonic Tremors” is a raging and welcome psychedelic slab of
Space Rock.
Taking their name (and the Old Man Gloom name) from the giant marionette effigy burned every Autumn during the Fiestas de Santa Fe in Santa Fe, New Mexico Zozobra have turned out a massive and and enjoyable disc. It’s a pounding riff-feast from beginning to end and only slows down long enough to churn a little of the psych stew with droney passages of murk. Beautifully recorded and produced the metal crunch is in perfect balance giving off waves of sonic density without losing clarity. The music is so good that I found myself wishing that there were more instrumentals like “Caldera” to really appreciate its glory. The cover art by Isis frontman Aaron Turner of the “Old Man” himself is eye-poppingly cool and gives the proceedings a thematic whole on which to hang. My only complaint is that the disc is over too quickly. I wanted these pounding prayers of destruction and rebirth to go on much longer.