Domovoyd – Mythonaut EP 2011 and Promo 2010 ...

North Europe is bringing more cool freaked-out heavy tunes to our attention.

Those of you who like to explore Bandcamp treasures found this Domovoyd gem of a band a few months ago. Domovoyd’s sounds were spread around the web and were streamed by radios (well, I too gave my humble contribution in that respect).

So it’s about time to spend a few words on these four young musicians from Seinäjoki/Kaustinen, in Finland: Oskar Tunderberg on vocals and guitar, Niko Lehdontie on guitar and effects, Dmitry Melet on bass and Axel Solimeis on drums.

Domovoyd is a rather recent creature as it has existed since spring 2010. Before then the band was called Potbelly. Well, I can get the reason of the first name, but I must say “Domovoyd” sounds a wee bit nicer …

Domovoyd’s releases so far consist of a mammoth EP “Mythonaut”, self-released in early May 2011, and a group of tracks going under the name of “Promo 2010”. These tracks were composed before the band changed name.

Both releases are available on Bandcamp for free download and are well worth being got hold of, as they show the many different shades of this new, attractive band.

The band’s style masterfully mixes various genres, i.e. doom, sludge, stoner and psychedelia, although the psychedelic component strongly permeates any vibration of the band’s production.


As with several bands devoted to psychedelic jamming and doom, the Mythonaut EP is a fake EP, as it includes 6 tracks summing up 44 minutes, i.e. the length of a full-length album for many bands. Apart from the 3 minutes-long intro, the other tracks are suites lasting even longer than 13 minutes.

The Mythonaut EP has a fairly typical “trip” structure, at least for psychedelic albums, with an intro and with the final sounds in the last track somehow contributing in “closing the circle”.

Hypnotizing space psychedelia helps the guys in making a contorted, mind-driven travel where doom downtuned heaviness, sludge sinister noise and bong-loving stoner groove and fuzz build up a remarkable sonic wall and create a pleasant variety. “Pleasant” doesn’t mean “easy” here. The resulting blended style is actually crushingly heavy and quite dark and fits with lyrics reflecting the band’s own, not-so-cheerful views on life and spiritual issues.

The Domovoyd guys say: “Domovoyd's music is about worlds in our consciousness, such like our own reality, different kinds of spiritual levels or even mythological dimensions. People, beings and occult events are central in the lyrics. In earthly ways told, the lyrical content is much about occultism, apocalypse and psychedelia, greatly influenced by great men such as Aleister Crowley, H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe.”


Tracks may have a soft start, as the one in the first part of the intro, and then develop in a crescendo of fuzz, distortion, crazy to trippy psych jamming with lots of pedal effects, powerful drumming and some cool and varied vocals. Or else tracks may start directly with an infectious groovy doom-stoner boost, like for example in the second track “Pool Of Gods” or in the closing track “Soothing Doom”.

Loads of fuzz and some imposing percussions dominated by the use of cymbals contribute to the dose of “noise” of the overall sound. Some raw, sinister-sounding dissonant riffs more typical of sludge and post-metal styles surely dilute the groove introduced by stoner components and by some retro-sounding, LSD-inspired mesmerizing krautrock psychedelia.

So Domovoyd make dark, evil heavy psychedelia, where even the quieter intervals, in which single guitar chords vibrate in the cosmic silence, are uncomfortably alienating. Heaviness, fuzz, doped alienation may recall immediately bands like Electric Wizard, and they do. But Domovoyd’s evil cosmic psych doom slabs remind me somehow also of their country mates Oranssi Pazuzu, even if there’s no black metal involved.

The dirty character of the sound also get benefits, in that respect, from the vocal styles as well as from a rather “gritty” production as well. Actually the production is quite balanced as all the instruments can be distinctly heard and do not cover each other. Even cool bass leading lines can be perceived during the many psych jam parts. Vocal parts are also effectively rendered by production as in semi-background, actively contributing to the dark psychedelic, tridimensional character of the sound.

Vocals are something worth to be mentioned in Domovoyd. Oskar Tunderberg possesses a wide tonal range which is able to add some quite interesting shades to the sound. Oskar may sing in his cool clean voice, not too deep but not too acute either. He can also rapidly shift to a rather raw, deep, alcoholic semi-growl full of rage which reminds me of a hybrid between Darkthrone’s Nocturno Culto and Jim Morrison in his stronger performances, or else also Church of Misery’s singer Yoshiaki Negishi. Oskar’s clean vocal performances are distorted and add sensations of melancholy and loss of control during a chemical trip. The deviations towards raw, raging roars do increase the tension in this evil album. A sense of tragedy in this not so pleasant chemical trip is also added by the employment of a movie sample with a nasty laughter of a man followed by a desperate scream of a woman, announcing bad news. This can be heard at the beginning of the monumental, +13 minutes-long dark, hypnotic doomy suite The Summoning (Part 2).


Earlier I mentioned Church of Misery for the singing style. Actually I can feel Church of Misery quite a lot in Domovoyd. The Japanese nasty psych doomsters are definitely worshipped in the powerful tracks included in Domovoyd’s Promo 2010 EP, where the more experimental space psychedelia of the “new” Domovoyd is basically confined in the last track Argentum Astrum. However I grasp some Church of Misery again in Mythonaut as well, for example in the heavier parts of the closing track “Soothing Doom”.

In case you want some names of young, emerging bands to which Domovoys can be compared, well, you can read a long list on Last.Fm, although similarities may sometimes hold for some features. Anyway I may definitely mention bands like Arenna and Sesiones Acidas for the trippy psych parts, some bands of the remarkable growing Ukrainian scene like Ethereal Riffian and, especially, Snakerider for the various shades of the powerful psych-heavy doom blend, Belzebong and Ramon Zarate (in the last album especially) for fuzz and dope … But you can add more bands as you like, as there are many possible matings.


As I mentioned above, Domovoyd’s releases are available for free download on Bandcamp. A support to the band can be given by going to the gigs (if at the right latitudes) as well as by buying the self-produced solid CD of Mythonaut EP which is distributed by the Swedish label Ozium Records.

My vote? 8.5/10


By Marilena Moroni

Domovoyd @ Bandcamp
Domovoyd @ Facebook
Domovoyd @ Myspace
Ozium Records