Review: Lunar Chamber – Shambhallic Vibrations
What is this, a release for ants!? I’m going to need an album at least three times longer than this!
Lunar Chamber is made up of some crazy stage-named fellas playing some whacked-out prog death that hits every one of my buttons, often simultaneously. But like a fatty, salty snack, this small taste has me reaching back into the bag for another, and that bag is empty.
Ignoring the transition tracks, the first two of three tracks are blindingly fast, with ideas for about 6 songs crammed all up against each other in a beautifully discordant way. The final track takes its time, hitting hard on the Buddhist themes in the record. A synth-lead contemplation session explodes into doomy suffering, the full realization of a spiritual life. This EP is 29 minutes of distilled creativity and probably the biggest tease of the year.
While getting more Lunar Chamber is probably a few years out, I need to find at least a proximate match to fill the void. The only way to resolve this is to make wildly incorrect guesses about who is in this band and listen to their projects instead.
- So let’s start with this tiny little fragment around 2:30 of the second track that sounds VERY familiar. Those same low-chanted ritualistic cleans sound an awful lot like sections all over Esoteric Malacology. Of course, once I made that connection, you can hear stylistic similarities all over Shambhallic Vibrations. The slug guys are suspect numbers one and two.
- If the vocalist were also the bassist, I’d be throwing some money down on our pal Josh from Dischordia being in the mix. The unpredictable bass lines and guttural growls aren’t too far off.
- The ability to seamlessly throw in some doom and shreddy solos? Many bands come to mind, but I’ll just say Tomb Mold to get some people hot and bothered.
So while that guessing game was fun, it turns out they really aren’t anonymous at all. The member’s previous/current bands are Tómarúm, The Ritual Aura, Theurgy, Alcyone, Progeny, and Proliferation. And if I haven’t hyped this up enough, the mastering was done by Colin Marston.
Pick it up over at 20 Buck Spin now!
