Bring Me The Head Of Orion - Courting Leviathan

Bring Me The Head Of Orion is a drone doom outfit from Austin, Texas who have already released demo's, been involved in a split album with Syncope and have appeared on some compilation albums so they have already had a productive recording career. This album is called "Courting Leviathan" and is released via Australia's Black Drone label. You may love or hate drone but either way its hear to stay and this one of the better releases in the genre. This has all the usual droning trademarks, extended humming and buzzing tones, a crushing bleak atmosphere and repetitive guitar and bass lines but this album is blacker than most. Obvious comparisons go out to Sunn O))) especially the Black One era and while drone is very limited sound wise, Bring Me The Head Of Orion take it about as far as the style can go given the confined limitations of this genre of music. Two epics "Courting Leviathan" and "For He Was Many" take up the bulk of the disc, both these tracks run over 20 minutes and there is two shorter tracks that begin and end the album. All the tracks follow the same path of droniness, long ringing chords that buzz and hum, no drumming or vocals, just a overwhelming sense of tension and controlled contemplative pensive awareness. Best track or the most easily listening track for the want of a better term would be "For He Was Many" which seems to have the most varied sound textures, not quite as monotonous as the other tracks. There is enough "brown noise" to please the hardcore drone fan but the sustained tones don't seem to have much purpose as there is not much in the way of song building. Very hypnotic for the most part, this album does have a mesmerizing quality about it but its definitive mood music to listen to in a darkened room alone. I feel at the moment, drone is stuck in a rut, the glory days of Sunn 0))) are over even though their recent material has been good, its just the experimentation side of the genre has hit a brick wall with the style just going around in circles. At least this album is very listenable but it is not ground breaking in any way, just solid drone done with a large amount of blackness inserted into it. If you don't like drone then you will hate this, if you want riffs and lots of them then avoid this but if you are a hardened drone listener, then you will enjoy this album by Bring Me The Head Of Orion. Its only been made in limited quantities however so be quick if you want to grab a copy. 7/10

www.myspace.com/bringmetheheadoforion