Style: space drone doom metal (chanting vocals)
Review by: Tim
Country: Belgium
Release date: April 23rd, 2021
More often than not I could start a review of mine with the warning: this is not your average prog experience. This is no exception. If you’re looking for a fast food prog metal experience, ergo instant energetic riffs carefully placed upon a chord progression with more-than-average complexity, this album might just be your sour spot. The subject of discussion here is a single live-recorded track that spans over 52 minutes and any attempt to skip through the track ruins the experience. The Belgian group responsible call themselves an arkestra, a reference to Sun Ra‘s insane space jazz that was already in existence over a decade before metal was a genre. Last year they released Éons, a self-proclaimed drone opera that was very original. But, of course, just because something is different doesn’t mean it’s automatically good or bad. So, what about the album itself?
Solar Drone Ceremony starts with the brave decision to build up from zero: the album commences its careful build-up with drone ambient closer to Maeror Tri than anything remotely related to metal. Over the first seven minutes a mixture of psychedelic aquatic and space effects slowly introduce themselves in the shape of minimalist synth sounds with delay and reverb effects. Then, before any Sunn O))) influences get a chance, a saxophone sneaks in and grows with the then-already-dominant cosmos sounds. Not much later it is apparent that there is also a drummer on our UFO hike and over the next couple of minutes the sound subtly transforms into free jazz, but without betraying the drone theme. Around twelve minutes in the sound has once again transformed, this time into drony space rock (since the drums are following some form of structure now), soon to be accompanied by chanting ritualistic singing. The drones have become more bassy and while you might have missed the start signal, we have definitely lifted off by now. Over the next few minutes the drones slowly intensify to bring us onto drone metal territory, although it is unclear when (or even how) exactly we crossed the border. It’s an interesting beginning that never fails to progress patiently, but it is yet to see where this trip will take us.
To my great delight the equally hazy and heavy composition keeps mutating elegantly, but not in a linear fashion. Shortly before the 20 minute mark the trip briefly calms down, only to pick up the pace again quickly after and to add a second bass note. More electric guitar sounds are introduced and not much later the chanting-like singing is replaced with downright chanting like it’s a ceremony dedicated to Cthulhu. To add to the psychedelic spectacle krautrock-esque guitar solos and more saxophone shenanigans follow up this madness, but never to show off, only to add more atmosphere. Planet earth seems to be just a vague memory at this point. Slightly half an hour in the ceremony dies out temporarily until only the drone and guitar shrieking are left… only to move into full-blown doom metal territory afterwards. Suddenly a few more chords are introduced, which is kind of a surprise after 30 minutes of drone. It is, however, done in such a manner that it sounds as a logical part of this beast’s evolution. It doesn’t damage the atmosphere build-up the slightest. On top of that there’s the first appearance of a quite addictive guitar melody, albeit of a minimalist nature. Outrageous! Sarcasm aside, the ceremonial trip advances with a wild saxophone solo into, rather surprisingly, a short modulation to shake things up, which is actually rather daring. Luckily Neptunian Maximalism do not stagnate in repetitive doom metal territory after such a long intro, as it would have been unfitting.
Quite on the contrary: the wildest is yet to come. After the song modulates back and holds a firm grip on its atmosphere without a sweat, its order then slowly falls apart and reincarnates into a heavier Sun Ra meets Klaus Schulze kind of section – which translates to free jazz meets Kosmische Musik-type synthesizer-laced ‘krautmetal’; in other words: awesome psychedelic chaos. Subsequently the drums return to providing structure while the rest of the band shows that in matter of fact they were still holding back in the psychedelic department. Especially the sound effects department goes hulk mode. If the previous part was to be compared with a trip through space, the final section would be comparable with warp travel. Even the bass becomes less central in the sound to provide more space for all the psychedelics – but not without sneakily modulating a couple of times. More and more band members do their part until everyone seems involved in this insanity. Ultimately, the last three minutes are spent to let this beast die a violent death. While it exhales its last breath there’s… applause, as it is a live performance, after all. It might be a personal thing, but I think the silence after it could have been really beautiful without those anti-immersive humans. But even with them recorded the album still leaves a firm impression in a very positive way. In less formal words: holy shit, this end section bulldozers over its listeners! I love it, and with the knowledge of where the record started it is even a more rewarding experience.
All in all Neptunian Maximalism’s newest album is a very original piece of work, which might be unwelcoming to get into at first. After first experiencing it I thought about rating the album with a 7/10; it slowly grew onto me and around my 10th Solar Drone Ceremony fly-through the final verdict is a 8.5. After all, Neptunian Maximalism do a lot of things here that are hard to pull off. The composition effortlessly meanders through a plethora of genres. In a krautrock way – ergo: with an improvised-sounding song structure – it builds up from zero through respectively drone ambient, free jazz, space rock, drone metal, and doom metal into a wild psychedelic finale. The atmosphere is further strengthened by the fact that the band members don’t try to individually shine but all serve the Solar Drone Ceremony as a whole. There’s plenty of variation while all parts make sense within this absurd world. Great stuff! The fact that it is a live recording doesn’t hurt the sound quality much at all, which is a relief. However, personally I would prefer such an overwhelming experience to end in silence rather than applause; the latter hurts the immersion a bit. I’m also curious how the final section would sound if there was a studio version.
Recommended for fans of: Sunn O))), Sleep, Nadja, PiNioL, Cosmic Jokers
Final verdict: 8.5/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram
I, Voidhanger Records: Bandcamp | Website | Facebook
Neptunian Maximalism is:
– Guillaume Cazalet (amplified guitar, vocals)
– Jean Jaques Duerinckx (baryton sax and sopranino)
– Didié Nietzsch (digital soundscape, spectral)
– Reshma Goolamy (amplified bass guitar)
– Joaquin Bermudez (amplified saz)
– Romain Martini (amplified guitar)
– Lucas Bouchenot (percussions)
– Stephane Fedele (drums)
– Alice Thiel (synth)
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