POHL – Mysteries
Release Date: 26th July 2024
Label: Wrong Speed Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Sludge, Doom, Stoner, Noise Rock.
FFO: FLOOR, Torche, Big Business, Guided By Voices.
Review By: Paul Franklin
Mysteries is the full length debut from Sheffield noise rock outfit POHL. After frequent line up changes and self-imposed intermissions, the duo are now vocalist/guitarist Will Pearce and drummer Dr Linda Westman (formally of late Toronto death metallers Old Hope).
The press release for Mysteries describes it as ‘a swirling, cosmic onslaught of heavy motorik riffs and offhand musings on everything and nothing in equal measure.’ This particular reviewer describes Mysteries as ‘a repetitive onslaught of aimless droning and annoying ambient noises’.
When it comes to art and ‘arty’ projects there is always a huge risk of style over substance, where no amount of descriptive bullshit can detract from the simple fact that the level of profound self-indulgence used by the artist in its creation is directly inverse to the level of ‘flying fucks given’ by everyone else.
Unfortunately, for the most part, listening to this album sounds like walking past what you thought was an abandoned factory unit and hearing a boombox pumping out some genric doom whilst a couple of lunatics bang on some old bits of machinery and one of them wails and chants away with his head inside a metal bin.
If you stopped to listen further, you would occasionally hear a moment or two that might make you want to go inside to investigate. Revelation, for example, which starts off with some religious sound clips and then attempts a decent stab at melody, before one of the participants gets their hands on a pneumatic drill. Second track God flirts with sounding a bit like Mastadon, then a bit like Motorhead, but soon gets rejected and walks off with its tail between its legs.
Obviously, opinions are like arseholes (everyone has one) and there are reviews of Mysteries that are talking about AOTY contention. Just in case it wasn’t clear, this isn’t one of them.
(2 / 5)
