Incoming Cerebral Overdrive-LeStell: A voyage adrift

Supernatural Cat
2012

Some people probably spend some time going over a band's background before listening to an album they are going to review. I rarely do that. Nope, I frequently just fire it up and give it a shot then do the research on the band later. I don't see the need to have any preconceived ideas about  a band. The music is either going to hit me or it isn't. So I start this album up and the opener "Mirzam" flies on spinning all over the place with riffs, drums and synth effects going this way and that. I am trying to get a focus on all that's going on. There really isn't time as the second song "Sirius" comes smashing through with spaced out effects and all the subtlety of a wrecking ball through your front window. The vocals growl along with musical attack. The rest of the album continues the high quality of these songs. Each track has it's own insane sounds and personality although they all contain moments of beauty and brutality mixed in together as they tie in elements of stoner rock, drone, death and hardcore. Frequently bands playing this style can't seem to contain themselves and tend to have longer tracks. However on this album out of the first nine tracks only one is over five minutes. They saved some up for the final track Rigel which runs about eleven minutes. Unfortunately despite the length this song didn't grabbed me as much as the other songs. It felt like the same amount of tempo changes and ideas only stretched out to fit into the time frame. Still the bulk of the material got my attention and I will definitely be listening to this album for a while.