Album Review: Cydonia Mensa

Dead Shrine is a one man stoner rock band project of the incredible prolific and talented Craig Williamson. While Williamson actually performs in Arc of Ascent (a band in the more traditional sense of the psychedelic doom variety with a sound not too dissimilar from Dead Shrine) he is capable of many more sounds than those captured on Dead Shrine’s Cydonia Mensa. Not to categorize the album, but it fits so perfectly within the stoner doom moniker it would be a worthy example of the genre to showcase to civilizations from beyond our world. Perhaps that is exactly what Williamson had in mind. Certainly, there is an otherworldly and rather transcendental vibe to the whole album. The riffs here are epic, rich, fuzzed out and hypnotic. The guitar solos scream and sear through with the assistance of wah. Drums and bass are deep, throbbing and quite funky. And while some might criticize stoner metal for being too slow, Dead Shrine is on the whole quite energetic, leaning towards Fu Manchu rather than drone kings such as Sleep. Perhaps newly popular Pentagram would be a worthy comparison. At any rate, this collection of songs, written, recorded, mixed, and produced by Craig Williamson, are anything but boring.

Cydonia Mensa is a mesmerizing, rhythmic, groovy, fuzzed out adventure across the stars. Serpents of the Sun is funky and catchy, featuring an absolute ripper guitar solo and spirited vocals. Title track Cydonia Mensa starts with a drum intro Bill Ward would be proud of, and features harmonized guitar, feisty vocals, even background vocals. There’s a real groove to be found here and the guitar breaks that alternate with the vocals before the crushingly heavy bridge demonstrates some fancy fretwork. Sacred Light plays with a tone about as distorted (or fuzzed) as you could possibly hope to use, while Monuments begins with a sitar drone, before a swell brings us back into the fuzz goodness and a brief moment of silence before the adventure begins again. However, Temple of Saturn and Redeemer use the same tricks, (to epic effect) but listened to in sequence the fuzz can lose its appeal a little. Evolution Garden has a very different feel, with an epic and spiritual vibe, while album closer Illumination Through Knowing begins with an organ melody before the crushing tones begin again.

Dead Shrine does exactly as you’d expect it to – it rocks and truly embraces the genre of stoner doom metal. If anything, the surprise is that this album is more energetic than most bands of the genre. The guitar tones are fizzy, the bass is bubbly, the drums have a nice jazz touch and the voice is perfect to fit in amongst these other tones. Perfect music for driving, possibly through some psychedelic landscape, or a rocket ride through space to show some aliens one of the finest examples of the genre known as stoner rock.