Deludium Skies is an Austrian band with which I am already acquainted with via their 2020 album Anthropocene. While that album was pretty good, then their new album does not disappoint as well with its heavy and droney psychedelic noise rock. While writing psychedelic noise rock I do not mean the likes of Mainliner or Makoto Kawabata in general, but rather something that seems to mix Skullflower with Narcosatanicos and Brainbombs, while slowing them all down to something in the pace of Earth, and adding some Fire!. Its psychedelic in a sort of a heavy slowed down sense, in a dark yet psychedelic sense. Perhaps it sounds like a trip, but a really really strange one. Stranger than your usual trip.
The first track is appropriately titled 'Corridor of Deception', which it does actually sound like. One of those times the artist actually gets the title spot on. The comparisons I made earlier are very fitting to this particular track. The track sounds like a mixture of Skullflower and Brainbombs...and Earth. Its heavily psychedelic in a sort of a slowed down murder kind of way, but the good kind of murder you know? 'Luminous' continues in the same path of slow psychedelic noise rock heavyness, while 'Everglade' packs some haunting and foreboding vibes, with tons of sax or trumpet improvisation that works really well and reminds the likes of Fire!. And again to me this sounds awfully like heavily psyched out slowed down Brainbombs, while at some points sounding even catchy if that makes any sense. Something that would fit radio airplay at say 2 at night...in a psychedelic hell...kind of catchy. 'Jericho' continues in a similar catchy manner, while it is really hard to describe why it is catchy. I suppose while I have never done acid, then this album is what an acid trip would feel like or sound like. 'Skeleton Path' continues in a similar psychedelic acid trip manner and thus quite kicks ass. The sax impro on this one is more concise and even surgical in a sense, but still acidic and brain melting at the same time. Not something you'd want your doctor to listen to during your operation unless you are about to be murdered by an insane one in a horror film. Now while saying this the thing that makes these tracks great for me is the mix of a solid base and impro, while the solid repetitive base is heavy in a warped out nightmarish way and not only repetitive in a usual clean psych rock sense. 'Cronos II' goes even further into the psyched out descent to madness, while 'Entwined' brings one back from the edge of the mountains of madness with a bit of structure, with 'Rust' sounding like well at times like creaking of rusty doors, while still sounding psychedelic and insane. Suppose the doors were insane. The album comes to a close with 'Fata Morgana' or was it a fata morgana all along? The track itself sounds like psychedelic bluegrass to me. A bit of a Henry Flynt vibe to it. Would Henry Flynt sit through all of this to hear the final bluegrass song? I think it would be bad in his age, in a good sense, if any of you know what I mean.
Overall 'Destination Desolation' sounds even better than the previous Deludium Skies album. It sounds distorted and heavy yet psychedelic as fuck, and somehow manages to go from Narcosatanicos and Brainbombs mixed with Skullflower while all slowed to a Earth-like crawl into an improvised yet structured acid trip, while ending in a more of a bluegrass note. Suppose the ending is to help people snap out of the acidic ride they were in for. Yet even that track sounds psychedelic....
As they say. Destination Desolation. Godspeed Henry Flynt.
Get the album: https://deludiumskies.bandcamp.com/album/destination-desolation
