Saturday, 4 January 2020

Tortuga - Deities (Album Review)


Release date: January 1st 2020. Label: Self Released. Format: DD

Deities – Tracklisting

1.Shining Sphere 02:15
2.Esoteric Order 07:26
3.For Elizard 07:18
4.Defective Mind Transfer 06:07
5.Black Pharaoh II 06:10
6.Trip 08:56
7.Galeón de Manila 15:53

Members

Drums - Marmur
Bass - Heszu
Guitars, Vocals - Bablo
Guitars, Synths, Vocals - Kłosu

Review

Deities is the deeply haunting and equally progressive new album from Spaced Out Doom/Sludge/Stoner Rock collective – Tortuga. This hugely talented band from Poland bring their own deeply rich and inventive ideas to the table and it’s an album built on heavy rhythms and grooves whilst creating an addictive Horror/Sci-Fi twist. You can listen to the riffs or scary ideas the band have woven deep into the overall story of this bleak sounding album.

The album is influenced by Black Sabbath with it’s dark imagery and haunting riffs that show a band willing to think outside the box especially on songs such as Esoteric Order, For Elizard and Defective Mind Transfer. Though Tortuga save the best and heaviest parts of the album on the final 3 songs for – Black Pharaoh II, Trip and Galeón de Manila.

There is no point doing a song-by-song review as this album is primarily a concept album split into individual chapters. All I can point out is the music is superbly played throughout with elements of dark dramatic themes holding everything together. Tortuga follow a similar path that most Polish Doom/Sludge/Stoner Metal bands do by adding more fantastical elements to their music. We’ve seen Spaceslug and Belzebong become masters of that with their own recent releases. Tortuga do similar things as those two great bands but focus more on the “Horror” aspect even more.

The music can be quite distorted and down-tuned for certain parts of the album but it allows Tortuga to inject more emotion into their music. The album does have it’s fair share moments of Heavy Spaced Out Doom which can be quite Psychedelic and Trippy in places. Though the band thrive on the demented chaos the album holds especially on the more comedic parts of the album especially on the excellent song For Elizard. Where a certain legendary monster runs amok in New York City.

Deites is an unexpected delight with top-notch production even if the album does sound too lo-fi in places. Though I gather that’s how the band want the album to sound like. The album has a high amount of classic sounding Doom/Sludge/Stoner Metal riffs to impress the most jaded of fans with.

Overall, Tortuga have released a superbly entertaining and slightly demented album that shows why the Polish Doom/Sludge/Stoner Metal scene is becoming a major force to be reckoned with.

Excellent and Highly Recommended.

Words by Steve Howe

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