Acid Mothers Temple and the Cosmic Inferno: Ominous
from the Cosmic Inferno
Essence Music (ESS009)
From Aural Innovations #39 (May 2008)
AMT in all its different incarnations keep up the busy release schedule and
now we’ve got a marvelous new album by Cosmic Inferno on the Brazilian
Essence Music label. The creative force of these Japanese freaks doesn’t show
any signs of diminishing, although there might be some a bit uneven releases
from time to time. Ominous from the Cosmic Inferno is in any case one of the
best AMT albums I’ve heard for a while.
This CD comes with an exquisite, open gatefold mini LP cover with pop-up and includes six tracks that are somewhere in between four and 19 minutes in length. One of the shortest tracks is the opener “Ecstasy in Hell” that
is a fast-rocking psych rock blast with vocals, wild freaky soloing and space
sounds. What a way to start an album!
“Nipples in the Dream Woods” is a mid-tempo, hypnotic, long and
monotonic track based on repetition and has a weird synthesizer arpeggio going
on all the time. Kawabata has once again been unleashed with his guitar, and
there is a fast, brain-melting part towards the end. With its ancient atmosphere,
the acoustic psych folk piece “Omen Amen” also works very well.
The heavy, mid-tempo “Dark Side of the Apocalypse” includes a hypnotic
riff and vocals. This is a dark, sinister and lysergic track that really warps
your mind. The end part is chaotic freeform freaking out in the style that only
AMT can master. Excellent stuff!
“Golem Rock” offers again some rockier going with loud guitars and
is really wild stuff. The album ends with the quiet and psychedelic goodbye
song ”Na Na Hey Hey from the Cosmic Inferno” that has heavily effected
vocals and apparently nothing else.
Ominous from the Cosmic Inferno is a bit challenging but all the more rewarding
sulfur-scented experience that might not be for the most fainthearted, but on
the other hand the album doesn’t have the noisiest noise aspects that
can be found on some other AMT albums and can get a bit too heavy to handle
for some people.
Visit the AMT web site at: www.acidmothers.com
Reviewed by Santtu Laakso