The Wholly Other – Tracklisting
1.Blast Off
2.10,000 Volts
3.Blow
4.Star
5.Edge Of The Universe
6.Resin
7.Tijuana
8.The Owl
Members
Phil - Guitar/Vocals
Dave - Guitar/Vocals
Martyn - Bass
Scott - Drums
Review
Venus Skytrip is the 2nd full length album from UK Psychedelic Stoner Rockers Psychlona and this sees the band perhaps more aligned to the sounds of legendary Stoner Metallers Monster Magnet in more ways than one and I’m OK with that. As this album contains many themes from that great band whilst allowing Psychlona to run away with their own crazy Spaced Out ideas.
The sublime and psychedelic artwork of Kyrre Bjurling is being used yet again as it was on their debut album, Mojo Rising and will give you a great indication on what type of journey Psychlona will take you on this album.
The opening song – Blast Off – is loud, boisterous and brings on the Space Rock theme to the forefront of their style of Psychedelic Stoner Rock Metal. The vocals are maybe not what you expect at first but have their own own addictive charm with the music being the main standpoint here. The heavy guitars are always moving on to the next level of addictive FUZZ and the classic sounding 90s Stoner Metal sound is helped along by some killer choices of soundclips spliced throughout the song. A great song to open the album with.
Second song – 10,000 Volts – starts really slowly with an almost Blues Rock atmosphere taking over whilst remaining a claustrophobic style of Stoner Rock/Metal before the heavy riffs appear. This is a slow-burning song which moves along at it’s own pace but Psychlona do play a cool and heavy style of Psychedelic Rock. The song lasts for almost 8 minutes and Psychlona try a lot of different ideas on this song. The song can be too loud at times but it’s a song that demands your patience so just go along with the crazy ride that the band offer here and you’ll be quite surprised how this song ends up.
Third song – Blow – is another great song where the band start playing a cool sounding style of Desert Rock, Psych Rock and Stoner Rock merged into one weirdly heavy style of Spaced Out Rock goodness. The trippy and surreal lyrics feel inspired both by 60’s and 90’s Psychedelic Rock scenes but with a more aggressive modern Stoner Metal atmosphere holding everything together.
By now Psychlona are in control of their own destiny and it’s good to see the band leave the more Progressive style of songs behind and opt for a more straight-forward style of Stoner Metal that harks back to the day of Kyuss, Fu Manchu and Monster Magnet with the next couple songs with Star and Edge Of The Universe.
The final three songs – Resin, Tijuana and The Owl – returns to the earlier sounds of the album with Psychlona playing the heaviest and most far-out Psychedelic songs on the album with Resin and The Owl being the standout songs on the album.
Psychlona have aimed BIG for this album and they’ve delivered an album that is BIGGER, BOLDER and BETTER than their acclaimed debut album. The band have the mighty power of Cursed Tongue Records and Ripple Music helping to release their album and that’s a thrilling combination to help the band move onto the next level of their musical careers.
This album is explosive entertainment and will appeal to all fans of the Stoner Metal spectrum.
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to Purple Sage PR for the promo. Venus Skytrip will be available to buy on CD/DD/Vinyl via Cursed Tongue Records (Vinyl) and Ripple Music (CD/DD) from August 21st 2020.
Links:
Official | Facebook | BandCamp
