I thought Zoroaster's debut full-length, 'Dog Magic', was a creditable addition to the stoner/sludge genre. It purveyed a laid-back, hypnotic mix of Melvins, Electric Wizard and Eyehategod influences with a feel for crafting big, roomy riffs a thousand years wide and taking the time required to allow a riff to really qualify to be called 'hypnotic'. The use of horns here and there showed the band's willigness to stretch out and take their sound into more psychedelic terrain, and an affinity for post-metal expansiveness. These are all elements and tendencies that have been taken to the next level on their new album, which is a pretty heartening trend to note.

After a brief ambient intro, 'Seeing The Dark', the album gets underway with 'Spirit Molecule', a song propelled by a big, easy-going yet crushing stoner riff. The sludge attack of the first half of the song transforms into something much more spacey and even dreamy when a piano part backed with acoustic guitar takes over. The standard Zoroaster ensemble gradually re-deploys itself around this new melodic core, while clean vocals add another layer of stratospheric soaring to the feel. The song finds its way back to its beginnings very seamlessly, which just shows that the new elements haven't been tacked on willy-nilly but have evolved from the band's own musical feel. 'Undying' plays it closer to the doom/sludge template, musically and vocally, with quietly brooding, unassumingly crushing riffage massively crawling about the landscape, embellished in the latter part of the song with spacey sound layers bubbling under the surface and temporary gear shifts into a more crushing tempo. After these epic soundscapes, 'White Dwarf', relatively more concise and speedy, is just the right change of pace at the right moment. Next up is the title track, basically a 5-minute ambient dronescape which probably does the trick when imbibed along with suitable herbs, but did tend to drag on a bit because I couldn't wait for the next actual riff to come chugging along. So I was considerably encouraged when 'Lament Of The Master Therion' kicked in with a fuzzed-out bass plonking out an ominous riff. Once the rest of the band kicks in, there's some nice contrast between the slow verses and the more energetic riff that comes in between times. The outro, simply titled 'Outro' neatly bookends the album with more piano and acoustic interplay with space-noise decorations. At this point, the album feels quite solid but a trifle underpopulated, something that's remedied when the bonus track kicks in, another instrumenal song where radio burbles and psychedelic drones weave together over tribal drums.

It's a satisfying package, all in all, and one that sees Zoroaster poised to make a large mark on the US doom metal scene. I think they still need to incorporate the psychedelic blips and beeps more integrally into their sound, and they could have been less parsimonious when it came to compiling material for this album - which is a rare complaint from someone who often finds albums too long for their own good. Still, a good step up for the band and a good addition to your playlist, especially if spaceflights are planned.

Label: Terminal Doom Records

Year of release: 2009