ALBUM REVIEW: Clouds Taste Satanic - "The Glitter of Infinite Hell"

By: Ernesto Aguilar

Album Type: Full length

Date Released:31/10/2017

Label: Kinda Like Music

Clouds Taste Satanic’s blend of doom, stoner and sludge chords, capacious basslines and drums set an imposing climate that sets them  apart from their peers. Each cut here feels distilled down to the pitched greatness of its many influences. Guitars simmer like the hunt during a horror movie and by the albums conclusion, chances are your mind will be thoroughly mashed.

"The Glitter of Infinite Hell" CD//DD//LP Track listing

1. Greed

2. Treachery

3. Violence

4. Wrath

The Review:

Brooklyn's Clouds Taste Satanic rocketed to popularity seemingly right out of the gate in 2014, with its two-song, 44-minute debut "To Sleep Beyond The Earth." The immense sound and necrotic landscapes painted by the all-instrumental vision of Clouds Taste Satanic's music of that moment proved to be beguiling to so many listeners. The four-piece continued its streak with 2015's "Your Doom is Here" and 2016's "Dawn of The Satanic Age." Each successive recording continued the onslaught, barreling at you with sheer centrifugal force. That guttural rumbling and infernal place setting is a rare bar few bands achieve. So when word of the group's four-song, 72-minute-plus return this year began floating around, there had to be some apprehension. Although the band is still just below the surface, countless media have crowned Clouds Taste Satanic as malevolent royalty. But can the thorny crown stay with New York's finest?

Clouds Taste Satanicconstructs its cauldron of sound with the dual guitars courtesy of Steven Scavuzzo and Brian Bauhs, Greg Acampora on drums and Sean Bayon bass. Their blend of doom, stoner and sludge chords, capacious basslines and drums that set an imposing climate that has set it apart early in its career. Its many elongated jams have also drawn accolades, because of the overall quality of what they do. Each cut feels distilled down to the pitched greatness of its many influences. When you go back and hear "Dawn of the Satanic Age," you catch the elements of this artistry – complex progressions and impenetrable soundscapes made that an oft-discussed release. This time, "Greed" is your opener, and its guitars simmer like the hunt during a horror movie, barely moving beyond a brisk walk for much of the track. That slugging movement is still a lightless march, with even a harrowing solo 13 minutes in barely moving the needle from atramentous. By the conclusion, which winds back as an epilogue, chances are your mind has been thoroughly mashed.

The trenchant "Treachery" signals your descent with one of the best bass attacks you will get this year. Guitars circle like vultures, as the drums rain down. Before long, Clouds Taste Satanic hand out some of its signature intricacies, as moods swing from harder, faster rhythms into a more disinclined pace.  Midway, you are on a mystical trip to nowhere good. Again, Bay sets the tone well, bludgeoning the listener with his wide bass trajectory. This has almost classic quality to it, and is the most haunting song of the collection.

"Violence" and "Wrath" round out the new album, and are, as you might have guessed, Circles of Hell in the Inferno of Dante's "Divine Comedy." "Violence" is exactly as you might have expected, while offering aspects you do not. A deeply degenerate escalation of noise greets you without the viciousness you might assume. Instead the track advances with Bauhs and Scavuzzo's seething guitar contours. The song gets a big boost with its threatening rhythm section, until finally shaking down to its bitter end. "Wrath" leaps out with a concentrated nadir of heaviness, almost from the start. Its arc is unique in how the group lays it out, bringing forth the spirit of true-school doom while making its own original blends to the brew. Hints of psychedelica and post-rock flail about at the midpoint, before settling in on a contemplative, plodding groove. It is a satisfying end to a superlative return.

"The Glitter of Infinite Hell" is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook