Ahkmed - distance

OK this is hard band to get to grips with,the sound is not clearly defined and they play a style that mixes genre's rather than sticking to a chosen genre.They are in the Doom side of the musical field but play in a Space Rock kind of way.Ahkmed are a compact three-man group of guitar, bass and drums/vocals that produce a colossal wall of sound similar in parts to Mogwai but while that band has the tendency to bore me most of the time,this band comes up with a very interesting batch of songs on this album.The album opens with the most basic of drumbeats before it assaults you with a swirling Psychedelic guitar attack.Every track on the album has passages that moves and changes and its this approach that for the most part sets it apart from many other bands.Most of the music here is very much in the Ambient Doom vein but still manages to sound different than anyone else.There is backward sounds, extra loud bass, endless guitar effects and more tricks than a 100 other albums put together,It's safe to say that the guitarist feeds his riffs through the number of fx pedals - delay, reverb, etc.While this makes for a gigantic sound they lose some originality points on this one but still tracks like "Saltwater" have some killer guitar passages from a quiet almost pretty section to some immense power chords.I admire any guitarist that can mix things up like this dude.There is some sparse spoken-word passages but don't buy this for the vocals because there is not much vocals at all on here.In fact i didn't even noticed any vocals till the second listen.This is a interesting release on Elektrohasch Records that will might take a few spins but it suck you in eventually.Good stuff from Australia.8/10