Atolah - Relics Review # 2 ...

Let me make one thing abundantly clear: I don’t like instrumental music one bit. I don’t. My main reason is that almost all the time, instrumental songs are structured so that there is no place for vocals even if we wanted to. Those that can include vocals, had the band wanted to (those that sound like they had a singer but then things didn’t work out and the band omitted his parts post-production) can strike my fancy. I also hate drawn-out jams – oh, I respect the fact that all of it (supposedly) came out spontaneously, but I hate them just the same.

Atolah, an Australian sludge/stoner doom band is one of those bands who, despite being built on things I don’t like at all, manage to strike my fancy. Yeah. They’re the combo-breaker. In more ways than one. They even break tradition by having shorter songs in their debut EP, but they make it feel like one beautiful jam. The songs are distinctive enough to come into their own, even in the first run-through, but the album itself blends in beautifully. The songs don’t melt into one, rather, there is a high-level cohesion embedded in the album.

Here’s where I’ll break character: I won’t do a track-by-track breakdown of this five-track EP. It’s meant to be a whole, and I see little point in trying to break it down.

Now. Atolah plays sludgy stoner doom. How does it work? Well, all the fuzz of obese stoner tones are present here, used in churning out lip-smackingly delicious and satisfyingly fat grooves. These are accompanied by good drumming that knows when to take the lead, be it with attacks or punctuating by way of crash cymbals. The bass (a Rickenbacker 4003, if the band pics are anything to go by – a popular choice amongst sludge/stoner doomsters) is filthy, sharp and grinding. Brilliant. But all this is peripheral to the harmony the band can pull off with seemingly effortlessly.

From start to finish, it is Atolah displaying grand master levels of flair, identity, skill and harmony. There isn’t one dislocated part, one quarter-note-slip-of-the-instrument anywhere on this. Hell, okay, here’s an example: “Dead Leg” is basically a feedback loop. It loops same riff throughout, and establishes a hypnotic atmosphere through repetition – and every eight-steps (every time the loop repeats) it seems like it’s getting louder and louder as the riff is revisited, but that’s not the case at all. They make the song sound like it’s building a constant wall of sound around you, but it’s all in good, sludgy, stoner doomy chill.

And that’s the biggest strength Atolah has: the chill part. To use Bill Goodman (The Soda Shop)’s term, they are “the band to burn one to.” It’s so relaxing, so easy on the ears (despite it’s heavy tones) that it borders on the therapeutic. It’s like the music is there to comfort you, and that it does it with such skill and comfort is just… mind-blowing. Get this. Get it good. Get it now. 10/10, easy.


NOTE: The album’s tracklist is: Dead Leg, Relics, Down It or Leave It, Weedy Gonzales, El Duce. I especially applaud “Weedy Gonzales”, for making my day. Oh, and that excerpt from “Last Action Hero” in the beginning of “Dead Leg” also made me smile. One final note: I know I sometimes get too caught up in things not so recent, but hey, they are decent enough to keep me there, what can I say?

Review Written By Sarp Esin

Atolah @ MySpace