{"id":20445,"date":"2015-02-27T14:00:42","date_gmt":"2015-02-27T19:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.toiletovhell.com\/?p=20445"},"modified":"2015-02-26T17:23:35","modified_gmt":"2015-02-26T22:23:35","slug":"lose-yourself-in-acid-kings-the-middle-of-nowhere-the-center-of-everywhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/lose-yourself-in-acid-kings-the-middle-of-nowhere-the-center-of-everywhere\/","title":{"rendered":"Lose Yourself In Acid King’s The Middle Of Nowhere, The Center Of Everywhere<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ten years after the great III<\/em>, Acid King<\/strong> returns with another platter of\u00a0stoner doom wizardry. Does it live up to their previous records?<\/p>\n

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There are a plethora of adjectives used to describe music. When it comes to metal, specifically, some of them are incredibly recurrent – heavy, dark, aggressive,\u00a0visceral.<\/em> The latter refers to the way certain sounds are felt beyond the movement of stereocilia<\/a>\u00a0in your inner ear. It refers to how that one song or that one riff hits you right in the spine; how it awakens something with the power to make you move, headbang, stomp your feet, or even dance<\/a>. Such is not the case here. I have a feeling the new Acid King album The Middle Of Nowhere, The Center Of Everywhere<\/em>\u00a0is not meant to be experienced by the body. This record was written for your mind.<\/p>\n

Acid King has always been able to differentiate themselves from their brethren – they were never as vitriolic as\u00a0Electric Wizard<\/strong>\u00a0or as rock-oriented as\u00a0Orange Goblin\u00a0<\/strong>and Kyuss<\/strong>, for example. Instead, they rely heavily on psychedelia and droning\u00a0to create a\u00a0hazy,\u00a0drugged-out atmosphere. This time the band really upped the ante, managing to craft the most unique release in their catalog.<\/p>\n

I don’t mean to get all abstract on you (I might be under the influence of this album), but if you think of riffs as patterns or geometrical figures, they would most likely represent polygons. Yes, sometimes they assume convoluted, spiky shapes, but they eventually\u00a0meet their starting point. This LP breaks that mold. Every riff recorded here feels like a wave in the sense that, in spite of the occasional loop, it just keeps trudging forward, bringing you closer and closer\u00a0to the place that gave the album its name.<\/p>\n

Make no mistake, though. This album is massively heavy, just not in a pummeling way. On the contrary; it’s actually quite soothing. One of the key factors in achieving this effect is\u00a0definitely the timbre of the guitar and bass. Fat, chunky, and expansive, every note and chord slowly wraps around you with warmth. You have no idea where you are headed, but you feel safe anyway.\u00a0Piercing through the low frequencies of the rhythm section, the beautiful guitar leads come oozing with fumes that evoke vivid imagery each time they appear. Even though the leads are employed in a way not entirely different from post-rock, the tone “fuzzes” more than it shimmers.<\/p>\n

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The highlight of the album is Lori S.’s singing. Compared to their previous efforts, the vocals are not only louder in the mix, but are also performed with much more confidence. Lori’s voice is haunting and ethereal, contributing tremendously to\u00a0the deep trance this album elicits. The lyrics are powerful and memorable, which\u00a0grants each track individual value. Believe me, the vocals in this record will put you under an unbreakable spell, especially on tracks like “Coming Down From Outer Space” (my personal favorite), “Laser Headlights”, “Red River”, and “Center of Everywhere”. Yes, I am aware I just cited half the album, and no, I do not care. The singing here is that good.<\/p>\n