Dungeon Weed – Mind Palace Of The Mushroom God
Forbidden Place Records / Fuzzy Mind Records – 2020
Rock, Doom, Metal, Sludge
Rated: ***
As we all know, everything is always highly subjective, there is no such thing as objectivity. Keep that in mind. For the next few minutes and every minute henceforth. Well… Shucks... For I am not very partial to the band name Dungeon Weed, I’m also struggling a bit with the artwork, and perhaps even the album title Mind Palace Of The Mushroom God and some of the vocals. It all feels a bit too gimmicky and even though there are definitely moments when I can appreciate a gimmick, this time around, it does not seem to work for me. I almost wanted to dismiss the entire album after the first two tracks, but decided to stick it out. And I am happy I did so, cause there is some great doom metal and sludge lurking beneath the grime, dust and annoying vocals. Offsetting those annoying vocals are some female lines that immediately lift every track to a higher level; of release and freedom; even though the music itself gives off this vibe of slowly lumbering to ones inevitable death. Which seems about right, since it tells the story of an imprisoned wizard. We get this proto feel directly from some electrifying guitar work and majestic drumming. Drenched in an unholy level of distortion, feedback and fuzz; it all comes together in perfect harmony and paints the bleak picture well…. And then you read the accompanying press package and see that it’s actually Dmitri Mavra of Skunk and Slow Phase at the helm here. Dang, this is completely different, completely doomed and sludged and we wonder what it will mean for future Skunk releases!
(Written by JK)
