Judging by the album cover, the reviews of this album and the first 30 seconds of the opening track, I was all set for an hour and fifteen minutes of slow, repetitive stoner sludge. Which isn’t a bad thing by the way. But what I didn’t see in the reviews, and stuff online about this album, is that it has a certain element of playfulness. If you’re listening to Electric Wizard for the first time (which I was), the second track - Funeralopolis - is going to hit you like a gazillion sledgehammers. It’s thick, abrasive, grimey yet…comforting noise. I was not prepared for the sheer enormity of the sound produced by that pedal they’re using.

The rest of the album fails to do much else to keep things exciting, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The sound of this is just so unique, it’s like trying a new piece of candy as a child, it’s so incredibly exciting at first you don’t really pay attention to the things you don’t like until you come back to it a few times. This album is repetitive. I can’t really decide if it does it in a good way or bad way. I love repetitive, meandering albums, I’m a huge ambient music nerd. But this one just isn't it for me. It feels like they exploited the novelty of this sound a little too much. There just isn’t enough in this to keep you coming back for more. It is really exciting on first listen, but gets tedious really quickly, in a migraine-inducing way. Perhaps that is the appeal.

Highlights

• Funeralopolis
• The Hills Have Eyes

Final Thoughts

Fun the first time, get's progressively more bland on successive listens.