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NOSTONE
Road Into The Darkness

Self-released (2021)
Rating: 7.5/10

Emerging from Rosaria, Santa Fe in Argentina is NoStone, an intriguing psychedelic doom metal act that has somewhat restored my faith in a genre that has been on the weed-soaked decline for some time with so many bands obsessed with being Black Sabbath and calling themselves something akin to Bearded Wizard Mountain, or something or other.

NoStone are Pablo Lanziani (vocals / guitar), Diego Moran (bass) and Maximiliano Fradellin (drums), and they arrived on the scene with their debut single ‘Bewitched’ in April 2020. I was rather impressed with that effort, but eager to see their next move.

With ghoulishly erotic cover art we have Road Into The Darkness; seven tracks of mesmeric, mountainous doom awash with atmospheric organ which bring to mind the sort of occult rites previously dabbled by the likes of Uncle Acid and Crooked Whispers.

The two-minute intro is pure, fog-drenched churchyard organ and suspense, conjuring up images of twittering bats and satanic orgies, before we’re into the aforementioned ‘Bewitched’. This song is an orgasmic and ectoplasmic groove, swamped in late 60s and early 70s horror psychedelia. The rhythm is simple, familiar almost, and the vocals drift nicely – harmonic, sugary almost, as they evoke that Uncle Acid-cum-Beatles sense of grooviness, yet with an underlying sinister layer.

Imagine then a coven of semi-naked witches dancing to this one while their broomsticks rest and cauldrons toil. There’s nothing overtly fancy, but it’s a huge kick of a track, lazy in its vocal drool and equally languid in its pulse.

The same could also be said for the lumbering ‘The Frayed Endings’, which is a classic doom metal trudge with trickling, tickling bass line and further occult imagery as Pablo Lanziani melodiously wafts his vocals over the lucid landscape of aching guitars and steady, hefty drum jabs. It’s not slow motion by any means, but it’s stable and haunting in its prose.

‘Devil Behind’ lowers the tone to a dramatic and creepy horror score of sorts; whispering, twinkling and then that mighty syrupy trudge. But what I really like about the tracks on offer is the fact they aren’t overlong – there’s no stoned 15 minutes of boredom, just short, drifting heavy psych. Damn, throw Enuff Z’Nuff’s Donnie Vie on this and it’d still work; that nasally strain of Lanziani, a nice, swirling expression above the thick, compost levels of gloom.

‘Goodbye’s Blues / Put Me In A Hole’ starts with a clanking plod as again those Uncle Acid-like chimes come to the fore as a hauntingly melancholic guitar tone wisps out of the murk. Meanwhile, ‘Shadow No More’ comes crashing like a furniture removal team dropping their junk over a fuzzed up Black Sabbath recording – needle on the fluff n’ all with this one as the band lumbers out of the churchyard and straight into the fires of Hell for extra baking.

The stoners will love this album, as it’s lazy and catchy enough to consume the hipsters in their many clouds of smoke. But I’m almost disappointed by the simplicity of the record, craving further horrified dramatics and supernatural suspense. However, as the closing title track picks up the pace slightly I’m aware of the lack of deviation throughout this affair, but still remain entertained by its psyched-up hard rockin’ laziness.

At times the drums need less muffle as they tend to get lost in the haze, although maybe the general pea-soup fog feel will drag some listeners into the mire? But for me, some added injection of organ would have been welcomed.

As it stands, with one foot firmly entrenched in a peat bog, NoStone’s debut full-length bludgeon is a mix of the satanic and the sugary, and that’s fine by me. Where they go from here though is something they need to look at, as a tad more variety wouldn’t go amiss in what is still a solid, atmospheric doom metal bog.

Neil Arnold

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