Album Review: "Cycles of Mobeum" by Druids

Cycles of Mobeum

One of my favorite things about this place is how I'm completely not beholden to any one particular genre of music, though it's often I'm called a metal blogger or by some online gents a purveyor of crap music.

Truth be told there are many sources of the music seen on these humble pages.

My musical taste, like many tastes of mine, is wildly eclectic and that makes me happy.

So, one of my sources sends me this new record. Normally, they don't send metal, but avant garde music that some people wouldn't even be able to call music sometimes.

The cover screams metal and it also says concept album. Even with no tropes to denote either thing, but being a pretty metal guy, hey we can smell our own.

Druids

Well, it appears that my initial reactions were correct as I read the accompanying information about Druids.

They're from DesMoines, IA and we're looking at their second album. By the way, DesMoines was quite good to me. I took in my first minor league baseball game there and picked up a JVC X'Eye there!

The first track...

What in the...? We have to go back to the genesis of metal. Most people don't realize it was the unholy alliance of the Boris Karloff movie, Black Sabbath and an English blues band called Earth.

So, it shouldn't be any surprise that this albums starts off with an extended 12 bar blues solo that ends in two part harmony. It was Joe Bonamassa level quality here too.

From that point on, it was clear this wasn't your every day doom metal concept record, but hills and valleys of instrumentals interspersed with vocals that sound like Baroness at their angriest.

The ups and downs of Cycles of M obeum have held my interest and it's already been spun five times before writing this review. In many ways this album is indescribable, which is why I'm failing a bit to express it to you.

This can be said, don't miss out on this record. It's vinyl worthy.

Release: 6/3/16
Genre: Doom Metal
Label: Sump Pump Records
Facebook
Bandcamp