Zaum
Oracles
I Hate
2014
Zaum is a Canadian music project between Kyle Alexander McDonald (Shevil’s front-man) on guitars, sitar, synth & vocals and Christopher Lewis (Iron Giant’s front-man) on drums. The duo does not stray from their beloved doom metal music; this time they are moving on more drone, sludge & slow doom metal paths.
Zaum defined their style as “Middle Eastern mantra doom”. Whatever that means! Their lyrical concept is based on the ancient Middle East and the whole atmosphere of the album, with the use of sitar, conveys such a thing. “Oracles” features 4 tracks which last about 48 minutes. So you get the point. Everything is delivered slowly – at times crawly – with eerie & psychedelic passages here & there. A music comparison can be done with Sleep, Om, Bong & Electric Wizard (which is one of the bands that I love to hate! Hehe!!!).
Anyhow, “Oracles” totally addresses to the fans of the genre, as if you’re not into this kind of music you won’t fancy this release. I was never into this genre, so my opinion cannot be very objective. This album – as the majority of this kind of music – has some fine ideas but the repetitive tempos and the never-ending intros and outros for no reason tend to bore me after a while. The Middle East touches here are fine but the songs suffer from the same boredom issue – all the albums of this style do. Then again this kind of music was meant to be played & heard only when you’re high and you fantasizing things so… it can be really intriguing after a while… the repeated harmonies and tempos can lead you somewhere along with any kind of “alchemy”… who knows!
Zaum defined their style as “Middle Eastern mantra doom”. Whatever that means! Their lyrical concept is based on the ancient Middle East and the whole atmosphere of the album, with the use of sitar, conveys such a thing. “Oracles” features 4 tracks which last about 48 minutes. So you get the point. Everything is delivered slowly – at times crawly – with eerie & psychedelic passages here & there. A music comparison can be done with Sleep, Om, Bong & Electric Wizard (which is one of the bands that I love to hate! Hehe!!!).
Anyhow, “Oracles” totally addresses to the fans of the genre, as if you’re not into this kind of music you won’t fancy this release. I was never into this genre, so my opinion cannot be very objective. This album – as the majority of this kind of music – has some fine ideas but the repetitive tempos and the never-ending intros and outros for no reason tend to bore me after a while. The Middle East touches here are fine but the songs suffer from the same boredom issue – all the albums of this style do. Then again this kind of music was meant to be played & heard only when you’re high and you fantasizing things so… it can be really intriguing after a while… the repeated harmonies and tempos can lead you somewhere along with any kind of “alchemy”… who knows!