Robots of the Ancient World – Mystic Goddess
Release Date: 21st May 2021
Label: Small Stone
Bandcamp
Genre: Psychedelic, Stoner, Doom.
FFO: Kyuss, Lowrider, Boris.
Review By: Paul Franklin
Portland based psychedelic stoner doom outfit Robots of the Ancient World (or ROTAW for short) look to take their sound to uncharted regions of the galaxy with the follow up to their 2019 debut ‘Cosmic Riders’.
Having been described as ‘a meteor shower of cosmic grooves and high-octane riffs in the galactic vortex where doom, psych, and stoner rock collide’ on the album ROTAW include nods to stoner rock titans like Kyuss and Boris whilst still retaining their lyrical fascination with psychedelics, esotericism and conspiracy theories, which explains the outro to the ten minute sprawling cosmic blues number Lucifyre, which features the famed conspiracy/lizard people theorist David Icke.
The opening, and title, track starts with a slow, spacey intro as the band members introduce themselves before the bass riff attempts to dislodge your fillings with a seismic rumble and the track kicks into life. Agua Caliente (Hot Water in Spanish) is the track where the Kyuss influence is perhaps most strongly felt, starting with that familiar heavy rolling bass riff that conjures up the vast empty desert wastes.
Out of the Gallows hits a chunky, chugging groove with some excellent interplay between the two guitarists towards its climax, before Unholy Trinity slows the pace, but ups the bludgeoning riffs. Next up is the punkier MK Ultra Violence, which could either be a nod towards the Mortal Kombat video game, or if, like me, you live close to the ‘iconic’ city of Milton Keynes, could be the result of someone nicking the last free parking space at the shopping centre! However, in light of the aforementioned interest in governmental secrets, it is more likely to be a reference to the program designed by the CIA in the 50’s involving LSD, sensory deprivation, mind control and interrogation.
By this point in the review, you may have noticed that I have made no reference to the vocals. There is good reason for this. Vocalist Caleb Weidenbach has a vocal style not usually associated with the stoner genre. He bends his notes and extends his pronunciations in classic crooner style. It’s not so evident on the first track, but when he opens his mouth on Wasteland, I had to do an aural double take! No two ways about it, the dude sounds like Danzig! Thinking it might just be me, I looked online, and no, it’s not just me. A fair few others have made the exact same comparison (Jim Morrison is the other name I saw mentioned). Now, this is where the issue started, once this comparison had been made it was hard for me to put it to one side. And although I agree that it’s certainly something different from the genre’s usual vocal approach, I can’t decide if it works for me. Hence, the album has scored a 3, that may change later upon subsequent listens (the music is textbook stoner/doom of a high-quality), but right here, right now, it’s hard to forget about the Evil Elvis.
(3 / 5)
