Release Date: July 27th 2024. Record Label: Wrong Speed Records. Formats: DD/Vinyl
Mysteries: Tracklisting
1.Narrator
2.God
3.The Whale
4.Untitled II
5.Revelation
6.Cellar Head
7.The Door
8.Pergamon
9.End
Members
Will Pearce - Guitar/Vocals
Dr Linda Westman - Drums
Review
Sludge/Doom/Stoner/Noise Rock Duo POHL finally release their full length debut album Mysteries and twelve years after their excellent debut release POHLSMOKER which I featured when I was The Sludgelord back in 2012. Only Will Pearce remains from that line-up and POHL have had frequent lineup changes and various challenges along the way.
Will has teamed up with ace drummer Dr Linda Westman of the late Toronto-based death metal two-piece, Old Hope. Mysteries is quite a catchy experience taking cues from bands such as FLOOR, Torche, Big Business and The Melvins. However, POHL embraces a wilder and eccentric style of Doom/Stoner Metal with a kinetic Sludge Metal and Noise Rock edge that allows their music to be quite sweet-natured and aggressively violent at the most unexpected times which gives the band a wholly unpredictable quality.
The opening track Narrator sees POHL play catchy strands of Psychedelic Sludge Rock with a DOOM-POP edge to them. The levels of Drone Rock can be heard with a minimal style becoming quite SONIC based with massive amounts of freaky based GLITCHES and AMBIENT sounds all working superbly with the outlandish “POP” sounding vocals.
Second song God takes a highly cynical and gloomy look at this with POHL relying on a more distant COSMIC and NOISE ROCK creative energy with the fast-paced and technical abilities of both Will and Linda on show for everyone to lose themselves in. Shades of Mastodon, KYLESA and even MOTORHEAD appear with this track which still allows POHL to deliver their own original style of Heavy Pop Music to the underground masses. The song takes BOLD and FEARLESS risks with how POHL play their music which becomes quite grand for the remainder of the album.
Third song The Whale is a turbocharged offering with a glorious Punk Rock and Speed Rock identity which then transforms into Classic Heavy Metal with excessive amounts of guitar shredding along the way. The vocals are boisterous and offer CHANTS that will have you singing along to no time at all. POHL packs many different sounding Sludge/Stoner Rock movements within the brief three minutes runtime of the track.
Fourth song Untitled II is ninety seconds of POHL experimenting with the music yet again to play a semi acoustic Doom/Noise/Psych Rock offering with cool sounding soundbytes to match that provide the lyrical narrative for the track.
POHL return to their normal way of playing fast-paced Doom/Stoner Rock magic which brings an Indie Rock energy to the album on the next batch of tracks such as Revelation, Cellar Head and End. The atmosphere does become more apocalyptic with the lyrics and how POHL their superb vocals set against a great use of soundclips to firmly hit the religious surroundings that Mysteries surprisingly contains. However, I don’t think this is meant to be taken seriously as POHL continuously plays that wonderfully surreal style of Doom, Sludge and Stoner Metal on the closing stages of the album.
Mysteries is the type of album that pummels you into submission and sends you to hospital with its brilliantly sweet grooves before discharging you and then doing that shit all over again with a huge smile over your face.
Yeah, fair to say I loved this album a lot and it’s perhaps gained a spot on My Favourite Albums Of The Year. No Question.
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to Sheltered Life PR for the promo..
Mysteries will be available to buy on DD/Vinyl via Wrong Speed Records from Friday 27th July 2024.
POHL Links
Facebook | BandCamp | Instagram
