Release Date: October 31st 2025. Record Label: Riot Season Records / Echodelick. Formats: DD/Vinyl
The Sentinel - Tracklisting
1.Space Shadows
2.Ezquerra
3.Ibises
4.Fact or Fiction
5.The Sentinel
6.Assault & Battery (Hawkwind Cover)
Member
John Riddell - Guitar
Omar Aborida - Guitar
Scott Falconer - Drums
Gavin Riddell - Bass
Review
Psych/Space/Stoner Rock collective Dead Otter release their first new album in over seven years with The Sentinel. I thought the band had split up ages ago but here we are with Dead Otter offering a collection of tracks that merge Post-Rock, Ambient, Desert Rock, Shoegaze and Space Rock exploration with the heavy offset of Stoner Rock passages holding everything together.
For the most part, this an supremely confident style of Instrumental music with Dead Otter creating lush and soulful interplanetary soundscapes to build their musical foundations upon. Taking cues from the likes of Yawning Man, Earthless, Hawkwind and ROTOR where they blend classic sounding Space Rock mysticism with modern day Psych/Stoner Rock styles of extended jam based music. The deft touches of Psychedelic and Cosmic energy is mostly subdued for the most part but Dead Otter aren’t afraid to add a cautionary style of destructive HEAVY ROCK into the mix which could be classed as Aggressive Post-Rock.
The opening track of Space Shadows runs for a mammoth eleven minutes with Dead Otter exploring multiple levels of Desert Rock grooves and subtle flashes of Experimental sounds keeping everything grounded. The music is played at a superb pace where it’s not too slow and not too quick either where the listener can soak up these trippy and addictive sounds at their own leisure. Even with this being instrumental you can fully understand the narrative and overall story of the whole album.
Second track Ezquerra allows Dead Otter the perfect opportunity to add different sounds, glitches and psychedelic beats to the mix. This has a more hardened attitude compared to the opening track with Dead Otter almost fully playing Scorched Desert Rock music with a twinge of Stoner Metal casually trying to break out and try to gain full creative control. This is one of the heaviest, funkiest and freakiest tracks on the album with the band playing an aggressive style of melody. With a Prog Rock/Metal energy developing from within, the band once again inject different areas of Cosmic/Psych Rock when it fully counts. You consider this track the most “HEAD BANGING” number on the whole album but still keeping with the overall mission statement of the record at the same time.
Third track Ibises returns to the uplifting sounds of the opening track Space Shadows but delves into Shoegaze territory which once again sees Dead Otter have a chameleon-like affect to their music and paying homage to Russian Circles at times. It’s not the heaviest track on the album but it showcases how Dead Otter aren’t afraid to play a more tranquil style of music while forfeiting their HEAVY ROCK attitude. This is a daring decision to undertake but the band pulls this off with huge credibility.
The next two tracks of Track Fact Or Fiction and The Sentinel sees the band offer listeners the best of both worlds with them playing areas of fully fledged HEAVY ROCK and the more subdued Ambient Post-Rock style. There’s movements of Drone and Noise lurking in the background with flashes of euphoric Desert Rock basically setting the scene for moments on contemporary TANTRIC melodies to fully emerge. Both tracks combined run for a mouth watering twenty two minutes that are perhaps the most standout sounds on the whole album. As Dead Otter once again fully explore their SPACE ROCK potential to the MAX with soulful strands of Post-Rock and the aggressive Stoner Rock surroundings that transports the album into different levels of heavy rock soundscapes.
The final track is an excellent cover of the Hawkwind classic Assault & Battery from their seminal 1975 album Warrior On The Edge Of Time. The original ran for over five minutes but Dead Otter’s take runs for over eight minutes. The band do experiment with subtle flashes of Psych Rock distortion but the cover is mostly the same and I admire Dead Otter’s talent and commitment for delivering a slightly different take whilst staying true to the original.
The Sentinel is a wonderful, meditative and highly rewarding journey where Dead Otter fully explores the sonic sensibilities of the Psych, Space and Stoner Rock sound.
Welcome back guys. You’ve sorely been missed.
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to Dead Otter for the promo.
The Sentinel is available to buy now on DD/Vinyl via Riot Season Records and Echodelick.
Links
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