black skies - Circadian Meditations

Black Skies

Circadian Meditations
self-released; 2013

3.9 out of 5

By Sean Dennison

The first second of Circadian Meditations on the first track “Lifeblood“ is the audio equivalent to being socked in the face from Guilty Gear's Potemkin. I just wasn't expecting anything that heavy. That riff is just…I've never been in a mudslide but this is probably the sound my mind would produce, a sunburst of cyclical guitar noise that's eaten up by the same amplifier it came out of. This is rock music of the heaviest order.

Black Skies is a trio from Chapel Hill, N.C. The music they produce is an excellent blend of stoner metal, psychedelic rock and space rock. The songs are lengthy explorations of simple but heavy drum patterns, tuetonic guitar work and tree-trunk thick basslines. Music like this is where Groovy goes to die.

Circadian Meditations boasts a good amount of surprises, given the genres it works with. The sharp acoustic moments, startling in their displacement, underscore the ferocity of the music they precede. More attention is paid to discernible melody than I would've deemed necessary. The seraphic vocals of Michelle Temple surprised me; I rarely hear a woman spearheading the vocal efforts in music such as this. Actually I can't think of any. The album boasts a good amount of surprises, given the genres it works with. The sharp acoustic moments, startling in their displacement, underscore the ferocity of the music they precede. More attention is payed to discernible melody than I would've deemed necessary. There are enough foibles, basically, that distinguish Circadian Meditations apart from its peers.

Not that the classic elements are not in order. The Hawkwind exodus that is "Lifeblood" is one of the most engaging openers for a psychedelic album I've heard in a while, establishing with adroit skill the mood to follow for the rest of the album. Tubular guitar licks abound in the barely catchy "Black C" while the gruesome instrumental "Time Lord" focuses more on how the drumming carries the composition. There are lyrics but the words are used more aesthetically than for meaning. For example, when Kevin Clark and Temple belt out "Every day is a ray" on "Celestial Coronation" it barely registers even as every syllable is heard above the miasma of churning guitar, bass and drums.

This album made my feel physically excited to write this review. How's that?

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