The Black Angels - Phosphene Dream

Rating: 4/10
Genre: Psychedelia/Rock
Black Angels return with their third LP Phosphene Dream and yes just like the last time the album sleeve itself is enough to make you queazy. Black Angels pride themselves on authentic Psychedelia and their art work is no different. The 60's for many were a golden era in terms of music. Artists like the doors and the 13th Floor Elevators blew apart the traditional view of what rock could be at a time where music inspired a generation of a shared drive for peace and love. For many bands now the only way to move forward is to first look back and today there are swathes of bands trying to place themselves into this important part of rocks heritage by emulating their heroes. The real benefit is the new technology that is now available allows modern artists to create ever more complex compositions whilst many classic albums were marred by the horrendous production quality of the recordings.

The music the Black Angels make is very traditional  in many senses and mostly consists of fuzzy distorted electric guitars that continue to drone along in time with slow paced beats and Alex Maas's almost Jim Morrison styled crooning with a penchant for the dark and eery. It all sounds very appealing on paper and the heavy influence of the Velvet Underground and 13th Floor Elevators  normally allows for quite an interesting set of songs. Unfortunately Phosphene dream disappoints. The over distrortion leaves each track bleeding into one another lacking the same dark hypnotic rythm of previous releases. Much of the problem stems from the lack of variation over their career, little to no changes have been made in terms of musical style and even with the best writing in the world repetition becomes dull and stale. Whilst the level of musicianship has not lowered most of this album feels like a lazy rehashing of 2008's Directions To See A Ghost. The solitary highlight is "Entrance Song" which provides the only memorable moment of the album with its low end groovey rythm .

Overall this is far from the Black Angels best work. The issue with a band so set in the past is that the musical scene they are trying to be a part of is no more. Only using the past as a reference makes it very difficult to actually make a progression in sound and here has worked to the detriment of the band. This unfortunately makes this album quite dull. I recommend 2008's Directions To See A Ghost instead.

Download: "Entrance Song"