Release Date: April 20th 2022. Record Label: Herby Records. Format: DD/Vinyl
Hashishian - S/T - Tracklisting
Onward
Let Us Reason
Mountain Of Smoke
Shai Hulud
HIgh Chief
Nazareth
Review
Hashishian is a mysterious Meditative Psych/Doom/Stoner Metal band that travels through the same riff-filled land of UFOMAMMUT, OM, SLEEP and HAWKWIND. Their debut album is what would happen if OM had released Dopesmoker and not the mighty SLEEP. Throw in heavy levels of FUZZED OUT ROCK and the album is quite an interesting proposition if you dig music such as this which I ultimately do.
The album is heavily inspired by DOPESMOKER and classic science fiction novel DUNE. The band offer their own spin by adding more Middle Eastern vibes and Drone Effects. This allows Hashishian to have a more "Desert Rock" effect with the use of different instruments and vocals that accompany this release. If you've heard DOPESMOKER before then these sounds will be common knowledge to you all. However, for folks not aware of that classic album then Hashishian will be a challenging experience.
The first few songs: Onward, Let Us Reason and Mountain Of Smoke all offer a slow-paced journey where the music even moves into vast areas of Occult based sounds with the primary WEEDIAN grooves that the band have used for this album. The instrumental work is very direct and distorted that moves along a deliberate slow pace. The Middle Eastern themes are more centred here and this allows the band to fully explore the Desert Landscape by FUZZY REVERBS which is driven by a powerful BASS tone held within the album.
Hashishain perhaps come into their own musical flow from the third song (Mountain Of Smoke) onwards with a bit of "DRONE" style slowly combining with freaky Psychedelic guitars that have echoes of the "DESERT" lurking in the background. The song is cautiously slow yet again but allows the listener to soak up the desolate and bleak WEEDIAN based grooves at their own speed.
Other standout tracks are: Shai Hulud and HIgh Chief. As these tracks see Hashishian understand the true nature of Frank Herbert's classic novel and merge it with Doom/Stoner Metal sounds for a darker style of music.
There's a lot of SONIC EXPERIMENTATION with this release and you can hear strands of Ambient Post-Rock on the second half of the album. Backed up by wonderfully freakish and top-notch production values. This album is a wonderfully complex and truly adventurous audio experience that deserves multiple listens to understand the whole crazy journey of it all.
Excellent and Highly Recommended.
Words by Steve Howe
Hashishian Self Titled Record is available to buy digitally now and on Vinyl through Herby Records.
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