Friday 4 October 2019

The Cosmic Dead - Scottish Space Race (Album Review)


Release date: September 27th 2019. Label: Riot Season Records. Format: CD/DD/Vinyl

Scottish Space Race – Tracklisting

1.Portal 20:57
2.Ursa Major 18:23
3.Scottish Space Race 11:54
4.The Grizzard 24:08

Members

Tommy Duffin
Russell Andrew Gray
Omar Aborida
James T Mckay

Review

Psychedelic Space Rock Collective – The Cosmic Dead – return with their extremely heavy and progressive new offering – Scottish Space Race. I will admit I’ve not been the biggest fan of these guys but even I will admit defeat and say that this album is a sublime and noisy affair that does everything right within the Space Rock genre.

The album is wild and extremely inventive with the different sounds and textures the band have included on the record. The 4 tracks on show here are epic in every sense of the word with the shortest track running for 12 minutes. The other songs hit around or past the 20 minute mark. So be prepared for a very lengthy affair with Psychedelic Sounds, Loops and other cool effects The Cosmic Dead can lay their hands on.

My favourite songs are Portal and The Grizzard. As the band show a wild inventive streak on these two songs and bring a whole level of noise I wouldn’t expect from a Space Rock band. It’s not all Space Rock grooves as the band add elements of Psych Rock, Sludge Rock and even moments of Doom on certain parts of the album. This is perhaps the band’s heaviest release to date and the band have added new members with Tommy Duffin of Headless Kross fame adding a more frantic and powerful style of drumming to The Cosmic Dead overall sound.

Will this album be for everyone. That’s hard to say. If you’re already a fan of the band then you’re going to lap it up. The more casual fan may find this album very hard going but I recommend you stay the course as you will be rewarded with a deeply engaging experience that only The Cosmic Dead can deliver.

The overall sound and production of the album is quite intense but it matches the raw atmosphere that The Cosmic Dead play throughout the album. The album can be too clever for it’s own good at times but that’s my only complaint on an otherwise superb and highly adventurous album.

Words by Steve Howe

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