Pharaoh Overlord‘s last album, 2020’s 6, took their love of synth sounds to a glistening, pulsing, Italo disco meets space rock peak. Its high sheen, sci-fi feel contrasting with the heavy metal growl of Aaron Turner’s vocals. Not everyone was sold on that startling combo, but they also issued an instrumental version of the album and a subsequent live set on which music and vocals seemed more completely integrated. Aware of grumblings from some quarters about them making records like they used to on Louhi they kind of circle back around to an earlier version of the band with two lengthy psych-drone head nodders.
It splits into two side long tracks which feel more like two takes at a similar idea than two halves of a whole. The calm intro is a steady repeating riff that lulls you into its slow burning groove, dialling down the speed of your mind and breath. There are hurdy gurdy drones which sound a little like the Butthole Surfers ‘Something’ turned listless and nodding out in the heat. It has you tuned to its wavelength by the time the vocals start about three or four minutes in. Once again these come from Aaron Turner but they find themselves in more comfortable surroundings this time. The sound palette is broader and more textured than on 6, the central pulse joined by wild guitar squalls, synth tones and the traditional sounds of the hurdy gurdy all drifting in and out but rarely pushing themselves to the fore.
In Finnish folklore Louhi is a goddess who brought disease and death, mother of wolves, ruler of the underworld. Which resonates with the dark and spiky figure on the album’s cover. The band though, claim it has more to do with louhinta which means excavation and is used to describe mining, crypto currencies, and heavy rock riffs. Possibly they were wearing their trickster hats rather than their matching turtle necks when they said this. Turner took a spontaneous composition approach to his vocals so there’s probably not a lot to read into it, just go with the cosmic flow.
Something they did excavate when digging into their own past was Outside The Dream Syndicate by Tony Conrad and Faust, a record which was an early bonding inspiration. Louhi is modelled on it structurally and you can see how it resonates but beyond that it certainly finds its own identity. Slow and heavy, built on repetition but always changing it moves organically in and out of phases of growing intensity. At about fifteen minutes into ‘Pt. 2’ it begins an ascent to the final blow out, the synths taking a turn for the epic and Turner howling into the storm. If you’re in the mood for some zone out drone psych it absolutely hits the spot.
