The first thing I thought when watching a teaser video for Naam’s Vow was “Wow, this reminds me of Tool.”
The video, posted by Max Wormbrodt, is of Naam at GaluminumFoil Productions recording a song that I can’t seem to pinpoint on the album. Bassist John Preston Bundy plays a bass riff that sounds very Justin Chancellor-esque, both in style and tone. And it’s not often that bands remind me of Tool, even when they are cited as a major influence; more often than not, they’re claimed as a main inspiration for generic radio hard rock bands that play standard verse-chorus-verse songs in nothing but 4/4, as opposed to bands with progressive tendencies.
So it’s strange for me to get that feeling from a band that doesn’t sound all that much like Tool when the entire package is examined. Naam are far more rooted in psychedelic rock, inspired by Hawkwind and Pink Floyd and bearing similarities to The Black Angels, Young Hunter, and Astra.
There is some complexity to Vow, but for the most part Naam focus on atmosphere rather than nonstandard song forms and time signature fuckery. However, there is a harder, darker edge to their music that is not present in the typical neopsych band, a good deal of which can be credited to Bundy’s Chancellor-esque bassing.
‘Skyscraper’ is driven primarily by Bundy, while the guitars on ‘Vow’ and ‘Beyond’ remind me of Adam Jones trying to emulate some classic fuzzy psych. These are juxtaposed with tracks like ‘Pardoned Pleasure,’ ‘Of the Hour,’ and ‘Midnight Glow,’ which are warmer and sound closer to the traditional psychedelic rock sound.
It is the synth work of Johnny ‘Fingers’ Weingarten that ties the two together. Besides having a kickass nickname, Fingers is fantastic at constructing atmosphere, staking his claim to a dominant place on the album with the instrumental introduction ‘A Call’ and continuing to add a spacey feel to the album all the way through to the outro track ‘Adagio.’ ‘Laid to Rest,’ a short acoustic track, is transformed from a quick little interlude to a standout moment on the album through his work. He contributes much to the unsettling nature of ‘Skyscraper’ and is essential to hard-rocking numbers like ‘Midnight Glow.’
Naam are well on their way to becoming standouts in the neopsych scene and fans of the style are sure to be all over this album. Not many bands are able to capture the contrast between the earthy and the spacey sides of psychedelic rock in one place, and Naam’s ability to do so separates them from many of their brethren. Vow is at times warm and inviting, at others cold, haunting, and dark, and at all times beautifully arranged and composed, and missing this album would be a mistake.
