I have a habit of going through my Facebook memories on the daily especially now just to see how life was when it all wasn’t such a daily shitshow. More often than not I mention music of some sort and one of my recent past searches reminded me of how brilliant the lone release from Vista Chino was. Hailing from Bradford, UK, Psychlona inhabit that brilliance wholly yet forge a bold new path forward to bring Desert Rawk into its’ next logical phase of existence. And if you think that statement was heavy then just wait until you experience Psychlona’s Venus Skytrip in full!
“Blast Off” is just MASSIVE Desert Rawk in its’ purest form with wailin’ guitars piercing the silence and a silky smooth vocal delivery from Phil Hey. Like Brant Bjork fronting Vista Chino as they cover “Odyssey” if you need a reference for the divine sounds created here. At its’ onset, Venus Skytrip presents a band firing on all cylinders from the get-go and after the final sonic throwdown from “Blast Off”, this jam just takes the song out in the most perfect way possible.
“10,000 Volts” goes all in with the groove like the best jam Clutch or Corrosion Of Conformity have yet to put to tape while “Blow” worships at the alter of the almighty riff with a slow burnin’ grungy guitar sound from Hey and Dave Wainfor as Martyn Birchall’s bass reverberates as it brims with a fiery menace and Scott Frankling’s percussive shuffle accents the groove before it, ahem, blows up at the end in an astounding display of righteous Rawk.
“Star” burns bright thanks to a bodacious bounce from Birchall and Frankling that brings back ’70’s Psych Rawk in a glorious way. The spirit of Black Sabbath resides in “Edge Of The Universe” which throttles listeners with a killer bass rumble and some slide work on the geetar and brings to mind clasic songs fronted by either Ozzy or Dio and later, “Resin” is Space rawk at its’ finest switching between trippy passages and Hey’s dreamy delivery before the riffs rain down.
“Tijuana” is a raucus, rollickin’ ride filled with ALL of the riffage leading to a monolithic shred-fest to close the song down and then “The Owl” comes in to really shut it all down, wrapping up Venus Skytrip with this thunderous, mountainous nine minute-plus opus that traverses space and time in a flying ’73 Corvette fueled by Rawk. Confused? Think Tom Baker’s Doctor Who and Heavy Metal having a crossover, press play on “The Owl” again and prepare to have your mind blown.
Venus Skytrip lands on August 21st through Ripple Music with Cursed Tongue Records handling the vinyl release (Which you can grab here). Pre-orders are up now and can be perused by your peepers if you click here or here. For more on Psychlona, follow the digital trail across the interwebs by clicking here, here, or here.