Earthbound Smoke Ghost… you'll remember this one for the name alone.

Or ESG for short, though pronouncing the whole is more fun, is uneasy listening to the extreme.

In a very methodical, grind it out sort of way, these New York natives lay the pestle to the mortar like few others I've heard in recent spates of consciousness.

Stoner excess?

Somewhat, as they combine the fuzz-tone friendly and vast reverb effects to a very discordant style that sends cold chills up your spine as quickly as the voltage shoots through the amp meters.

On the one hand, they're riff-heavy, foreboding of an evil presence or something that surrounds you-a black aura perhaps, and here we get the rhythmically evil twin to the original dark clouds of doom, trouble, and conversely, when the cosmic doom subsides… nah, that's about where it lies.

Nothing pretty on this five song debut, but what they lack in optimism they make up for in musical skill and lyrically inept word journeys that take ya to the ends of the earth and beyond-"Asphalt Green," the opener speaks of "Purity in a bottle of smoke, the souls of the oceans choke, as the arms of the planet broke, bone by bone…"

I could've probably ended it with the first line but to coin the verse of this first tune, we're all of sudden dealing with a being with a conscious… and an intriguing way of presenting their views-a world view under a cloak of mold, mildew and an altered state of mind.

Vocalist Pheroze, known for his work with fellow NYC ditch-diggers Skrape, brings a level of out front audibility seldom heard in typical Stoner Rock / Doom circles, often moving from a night piercing shriek to Hetfield-like groans-so we'll forsake the whisper to a scream ideology so prevalent in so-called "Nu-Metal" but worth pointing out here, sometimes you're not sure if you're listening to the earth cave in or the bounty hunter high on his horse proclaiming victory with a monumental moan of gratification.

Set mainly to mid-tempo meter, often low pitch-bordering on barely above ground, picture the likes of Clutch meets Alice in Chains, Danzig meets the swamp Devil… and can you imagine?

The smoke's becoming awfully stale lately but this is one band that appears to have the foresight to cut through the fog and break the grip of Stoner Rock stagnation that by its very principles has little room to maneuver.

Independent Release

Review by Vinnie Apicella [va85@columbia.edu]
______________________________
METAL STORM PRODUCTIONS
Vinnie Apicella P.O. Box 763 Brewster, NY 10509
845-669-9470