Firstly, I hate it. I hate it when a band comes along and makes you question your life as a musician and if you’ve been focusing on the right things.
Starting with the whirling 70s sci-fi influenced audio effect, I fully expected pure cheese to follow. Instead, some of the coolest vocals out there floated in. I first became aware of Alunah after photographing them at Uprising in Leicester but didn’t hear much from them afterwards. Then, seemingly out of nowhere I started to become aware of some amazing, consistently good imagery appearing on my socials’ news feeds. Carrying that 70s psychedelic vibe throughout the work I have been waiting with huge curiosity to hear the music itself.
The instrumentation seems inspired by classics as Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin all the way to the more extreme doomier and ‘proggier’ side of things. It has the same vibe as Green Lung who have been taking the underground metal scene by storm recently. Song to song, the album is well constructed and didn’t feel like you were hearing the same riffs over and over again… controversially, something I tend to expect on sludgier albums recently. I apologise for nothing, I said what I said.
I especially enjoyed the major chorus in “Fade to Fantasy”, it was an unexpected uplift and brought a big smile to the moody aesthetics of the album. Strong basslines with a great tone weaved with non-intrusive drums gave a solid foundation for the guitars and vocals to play joyfully and you can hear in the writing that they had an incredible time putting this all together.
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I didn’t expect the pipes in “Psychedelic Expressway”. That caught me completely off guard. The album has a few of these moments and there’s part of me that wants to mention an almost Beatles-esque feel to things. But that would be ridiculous and I would get slated on the internet if I said it. Luckily, I haven’t said it.
It almost feels strange to go from songs such as the one mentioned above to the heaviness of “The Earth Spins”. But, I like it. Another influence I can kind of see creeping in when I hear things like this is early Ghost… yes, I know. Another questionable reference. Honestly, there are so many moments in Strange Machine that I fully love.
Don’t expect the most inspired riffs or drums but instead a great production, superbly rounded song writing, soulful vocals and an album absolutely oozing with character.
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Strange Machine is out on April 15, 2022 through Heavy Psych Sounds
Check out all the bands we review in 2022 on our Spotify and YouTube playlists!
