Seven That Spells - 'Cosmoeorotic Dialogue With Lucifer' (Be
Mike Reed | USA | 12/05/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Most DEFINITELY some of the darkest, deepest and most intense psychedelic music I've heard in sometime now. What makes this CD so great is that Seven That Spells doesn't rip-off those who came before them. Sure, they were heavily influenced by the likes of Hawkwind, Acid Mothers Temple and possibly Monster Magnet, but this Croatian band does come up with some awfully good ideas of their own. Tunes that make this title a must-have are the wailing "Cosmoerotic Giveaway", the seventeen-minute "Stara Planina (Slight Return)", the awesome AMT-ish "Space Of Eights" and the fourteen-minute "Torture Vessel From The Triangle World". Needless to say, I'm having a fantastic time checking out this new (at least new, to me) space rock / psych band. It rarely gets better."
Hearing Damaged Muscians?
Fritz Gerlich | admin@audioetc.info | 03/13/2009
(2 out of 5 stars)
"I think these guys should start to wear hearing protection during their gigs. I say this because the lead 7 That Spells guy actually likes how this record was mastered. Niko wrote this note to the mastering engineer: "Everything is perfect!!!!! Thank you for more than excellent job!!!!! I'll mail you soon for the next album! Take care and rock on!!!!" I mean seriously, musician earplugs will save your hearing, they are only $300, and they attenuate the freqs all the same, so you still hear they music they way it is supposed to sound, just at a lower volume. Hearing loss is the only explanation for Niko's note I can think of because the mastering is terrible. It has all the signs of a loudness war victim: clipping, horrendous amounts of dynamic compression, and distortion. And not the good kind of intentional guitar distortion either, the bad kind that happens when the mastering guy is hyperactive with the dials. If you want to know more, go to Wikipedia and look up "loudness war". And if you want to know what a good modern properly mastered record sounds like, get Chinese Democracy. You might not like the music, but you'll love the way it sounds.
Anyway, so the mastering is crap, can the music redeem this record and make it worthwhile. Somewhat. The music is an intense workout with Niko and Kawabata feeding maniacal psychedelic ravings into the mix, one in each ear. The drums and bass have been buried so far into the mix as to be nonexistent. And what is left of the rhythm section sound is further degraded by the poor mastering. One is left wondering why they bother paying a drummer and a bass player if they aren't going to appear on the record.
The guitar work is unfocused, straying very close to self satisfaction territory. You know, the pointless moving of the hands really fast up and down on the guitar with no point other than the guitarist's own ego stroking. Chaotic noise bursts with zero structure wear thin after a while, especially when you have one crazy psych guitar god going mental in each ear.
So, if you're a big Kawabata or Seven that Spells fan you should get this. But if you're new to Kawabata or Seven That Spells, I would suggest starting elsewhere. For 7 That Spells, try "Black Om Rising" which is a monster of a record. Although I should warn you, that disc is a dual disc in that it has a dvd side and a cd side which makes it non-standard because of the thickness, and therefore will not work in some players, especially slot loading ones. For Kawabata newbies, I'd recommend "Recurring Dream and the Apocalypse of Darkness". And I'd get it on vinyl, as Kawabata gets his cd's mastered just as horribly as the 7 that Spells guys. I think he has hearing damage too.
So 3.5 stars for the music and "
