ninehertz

Fresh from the home of thee olde riffe, the Aluna/Catacombs Records bandwagon has been gathering pace steadily over the last 6 months or so - here's a chance finally to see what all the fuss is about with a three track demo offering. Let's eat.

There's no hanging about either, Aluna lay their cards on the table fairly early on here with 'Higher State', a classic Sabbath style elephantine riff marks its territory in a suitably low and lazy fashion before itis replaced with a more uptempo snaking rhythm packed with plenty of groove. There's definitely snatches reminiscent of early Gonga in here too - this could be partly down to the vocal approach being similar - Soph's softly softly tones caress the ears in the verse sections before the aforementioned riff crashes back in and punishes them with another sonic burst of goodness. 'Song Of The Sun' has more of an Orange Goblin feel to it, particularly with the attention grabbing intro/outro that truly kicks ass. Closing the cd is the 96 second long 'Not The Only One' that lays down yet more solid stoner/doom foundations before letting the guitar solos fly off to a wah-filled distant land one last time.

Production wise, the cd is a bit of a let down at times as you'd expect things to be a bit heavier all round for a band of this ilk, especially the drums which at times sound like a toy kit being bashed about. Still, it is a only a demo - and you can't argue with the actual songs on offer here as they are indeed cool stuff. Of course this also means we now will be expecting great things from the forthcoming debut album next year with a markedly beefier ball busting sounding blast. No pressure...!