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Black Space Riders - Refugeeum review



Reviewer:
8.3

16 users:
7.44
Band: Black Space Riders
Album: Refugeeum
Release date: July 2015


01. Vortex Sun
02. Universal Bloodlines
03. Born A Lion (Homeless)
04. The Lure (Come With Us)
05. Run To The Plains
06. Curtains Of Death
07. Melek´s Lament (Yazidi Tears)
08. Walking Shades
09. Ritual Of Inner Strength

In theme as much as sound, Refugeeum is an album concerning escape and dislocation from the rather aggregate arrangement of prior Black Space Riders records, and it's an active attempt at something more specific.

The theme for Refugeeum is of homelessness and the plight of refugees. Its sound is reflective of this, as its itinerant style of metal is atypically loose of definition and moves by a singular point of occupation. As has become the case across their discography, Black Space Riders are again on the move with their fluid and evolving style.

On record, these Germans are of a roaming sort. Although generally found in stoner metal, it's with progressive purpose that their sound traverses neighbouring styles of space rock and stoner rock in a sweeping mix, and one that is differentiated from the sub-genre sheerly by its scope. For the band's fourth album, the foundational strength established is its engaging and centralising rhythm; a methodical pace runs throughout as consistent drumming and inventive percussion frames what is an expansive conduit for psychedelia.

Refugeeum's psychedelic aspect is approached from a number of angles, drawing from psych rock contexts as much as metal of the stoner persuasions, resulting in apparent variety and irregularity amongst its tracks. The arrangement is unusually diverse in execution, and freely ranges between passages dominated by the metal rhythm section, to those in which such recedes to take full advantage of a purer application of its broad psychedelic elements. As much can be found imbedded and layered in the album's shortest riff enthused numbers all the way to its lengthiest outing in "Run To The Plains."

Characteristic vocal expression is at once grittily wistful as it is psychedelically enhancing, furthering a rather pensive delivery and mood over the record. "Melek's Lament (Yazidi Tears)" best captures this aspect, its six minute duration instrumentally devoted to an atmospheric build followed by the emergence of its latent leads and rhythm section in the latter half. Its structure is also representative of the record as a whole, as it most clearly presents the two poles between which the band works its rock to metal amalgam; from hushed and still to loud and alive with activity.

Where Refugeeum clearly demonstrates its diversity is in its more extensive tracks such as "Curtains Of Death," with track lengths which allow the band to run the gamut of their style in singular songs. The shorter numbers serve a contrasting purpose against these in their more straightforward structures, as is found in the plod of "The Lure (Come With Us)" which beckons with its simple lyrical repetition of "come with us."

In all, Refugeeum is a unique experience, and one which is consistently engaging to follow in its ranging and adaptable sound. That Black Space Riders have managed to apply their assorted approach to stoner metal and craft an album with a particular mood and tone is what is most commendable, and presents the band's control of a style that they can safely call their own.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 8
Songwriting: 8
Originality: 9
Production: 8





Written on 14.07.2015 by R'Vannith enjoys music, he's hoping you do too.


Comments

Comments: 2   Visited by: 144 users
15.07.2015 - 17:21
Bad English
Tage Westerlund
On record, these Germans are of a roaming sort. Although generally found in stoner metal, it's with progressive purpose that their sound traverses neighbouring styles of space rock and stoner rock in a sweeping mix

maybe its progressive stoner
----
Life is to short for LOVE, there is many great things to do online !!!

Stormtroopers of Death - ''Speak English or Die''
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I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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23.07.2015 - 08:11
fistswrecked em

Isn't the point of a review to say if the music was good or bad? Just reread seven convoluted paragraphs to find only two words that actually tell me if the author enjoyed the music; "engaging" and "commendable". While I appreciate the effort to describe the music, sometimes less is more. Having a vocabulary is a good thing....until you bludgeon us with it.
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