Cooling Tower - Saint Vitus

 

Cooling Tower - Saint Vitus
Self-released - March 2023
Psych, Doom, Stoner
Rated: ****

Cooling Tower's second full length and personally long-awaited follow-up, Saint Vitus, sees the Melbourne crew continue to explore their dark corner of psych rock to powerful effect. Made up of members from two death metal bands, Gravepeeler and Hormagaunt, the Cooling Tower project is an outlet for a different brand of evil, one that creeps and crawls with patience to spare. Opening track "Necromancer" is as good a mission statement as any for the seven track LP, leading with a slow, eerie chug that's just off-kilter enough to create an atmosphere of unease, a signature of the band that permeates the album. A crunching jagged riff eventually interrupts with punchy drums and plaintive vocals, a horror movie soundtrack waiting to happen. The chorus surprises, however, with bright, cathartic guitar before dipping back into the gloom and doom. More twists and turns await throughout the remaining six tracks, from the epic classic metal riffage and bluesy shuffle of "Hound of the Baskervilles" to the cool, laid-back spaghetti western licks of "Psychic Drive". Another highlight cut is the most aggro of the bunch, "Delphi", whose patient start belies a swinging, hard-hitting drive of ripping blues and drums that roll through like a train barrelling down the tracks. The penultimate "Nighstalker" returns to the doomier, uneasy fare Cooling Tower do so well, and they finish things off by absolutely nailing a cover of Sir Lord Baltimore's "Kingdom Come". Saint Vitus is an impressive sophomore effort that sees the Aussies digging deeper into their now trademark creep, twisting the genres of psychedelia and doom to dark purposes known only to Cooling Tower, and sounding like no one but Cooling Tower.

(Written by Kyle SB / Shastabeast)

 
Bandcamp

Facebook

Instagram

Spotify