God Root | facebook | bandcamp |
Released on January 9, 2016 via Independent
Sadgiqacea were one of my favourite psychedelic doom bands from the US. I am forever thankful to my buddy Ryan Stephenson for introducing them to me and my vinyl copy of their latest release, False Prism (2013), has been getting some heavy rotation on my turntable over the last couple of months. When the news broke back in November 2014 that the band was taking an indefinite hiatus I was quite sad as I really wanted to be able to hear more of their music. Luckily for Sadgiqacea fans drummer Fred Grabosky has started a new project under the name of God Root and they have recently released their self-titled début EP.
Whereas Sadgiqacea were a two-piece band, God Root has a more extensive line up, which, besides Fred on drums and vocals, includes Ross Bradley (bass and vocals), Keith Riecke (guitar), Joe Hughes (guitar and vocals) and Jordan Stiff (noise, pedals and sound manipulation), who all have backgrounds in various other bands as well, such as Slaughter of Elysium, Static Brothers and Obey The Ooze.
Musically God Root continues along the same lines as Sadgiqacea, which is great news for the Sadgiqacea fans. So expect a doomy, sludgey backbone, complimented with various bits of psychedelia, tribal drumming and chanting-like vocals. The EP contains four tracks, of which two are short tracks (an intro and an interlude), and two tracks are proper long tracks, clocking in at 10 minutes on average.
The EP starts with a short intro track, ‘Intro (Spirits Rise)’, which is a perfect illustration of the tribal drumming accompanied with the chanting vocals, and flows effortlessly into track two, ‘Of Habit’. This track builds up nicely, adding great bass lines and gradually building up with drums and guitars. Once the singing starts it reminds me a bit of British psychedelic, blackened doomsters Bast, as it sounds very similar to Bast’s final track on their début record Spectres, ‘Outside The Circles Of Time’. This is not a bad thing by the way. ‘Of Habit’ is a great tour-de-force and takes you on an amazing psychedelic doom journey, changing tempo and riffing throughout its 12 and a bit minutes. Towards the end of this track Jordan’s sound manipulation is adding some great elements to the music as well.
After the spooky chants of the short interlude track ‘Interlude (Bog Ascending)’, we’re onto the second “proper” EP track, ‘Of Control’, which starts with a heavy, repetitive bassline and some heavy, groovy drumming. The vocals are raw and add a great level of emotion to the track. ‘Of Control’ develops similarly as ‘Of Habit’ with various changes in tempo and intensity, making expertly use of lots of layers to create a great feel and sound.
Hivelord’s drummer Will Mellor (also on bass duties in Crypt Sermon) was responsible for the recording and production of this EP, which is great as well. The drums are mixed nicely into the mix and the snare drum sound beautifully, something which I, as an ex-drummer, always appreciate a lot.
Overall, this EP is a really nice début of a band continuing in Sadgiqacea’s footsteps. I hope the band will release a full-length album soon to follow up this more than appetising EP.
