Band:	Nibiru
Album:	Netrayoni
Style:	Drone, Psychedelic sludge metal
Release date:	January 11, 2014
A review by:	Auntie Sahar

Disc I [Ritual I: The Kaula's Circle]
01. Kshanika Mukta
02. Apsara
03. Sekhet Aahru
04. Qaa-Om Sapah
05. Arkashani

Disc II [Ritual II: Tears Of Kaly]
01. Kwaw-Loon
02. Sekhmet
03. Celeste: Samsara Is Broken
04. Viparita Karani
05. Sothis

It's that time of the year again. Leaves are dying, Metalsucks and Pitchfork are making try hard Top 2014 lists, and meanwhile more curious metal listeners are seeking to explore albums from this year that they may have carelessly glanced over, what with more honorable warriors such as Thou and Agalloch consuming the majority of their attention. Albums such as Nibiru's Netrayoni, for example.

The Italian trio of Nibiru play a psychedelic brand of sludge and drone (tending to lean more towards the latter), described on their Facebook page as "a huge abuse of watts, tribal rhythms, and Enochian chants." The double disc album that is Netrayoni sees the band journeying through a massive wall of feedback, underlaid with intense use of electronics to create a "whooshing" effect, and audio samples that run the span of everything from monk chants to The Matrix. An excellent use of more tribal percussion occasionally helps to greatly enhance the shamanic feel ("Arkashani"), and, while mostly an instrumental release, subtle harsh vocals creep in here and there as well, buried in the mix and adding to the mysterious vibe, such as on "Kwaw-Loon."

For those not too familiar with drone or psychedelic music, Netrayoni can be pretty uncompromising, as here Nibiru don't so much blend these styles with more accessible forms of music, but rather embrace them in force and go into full trance mode with them. At times it's best to not even view the album in terms of individual tracks, but in terms of one massive sonic ritual that has an inherent sense of flow and interconnection. This is definitely one of those albums where at many points you may find yourself losing sight of what track you're actually on, but thankfully not in an "every track sounds the same sense" and more in an "everything's linked together seamlessly" sense. It's a pretty mandatory technique for this type of music, and here Nibiru are hitting the nail right on the head with it.

In their Facebook bio, Nibiru mention that "What makes Nibiru an individual project compared to the mass is that every single piece is born from improvisation." While this may sound like an incredibly pretentious statement to the layperson, indeed, with Netrayoni the band do seem to capture the creative, improvisational nature of psychedelic music in full. It doesn't sound too pre planned, or preordained, but rather like Nibiru just started off with a single idea and took it in whichever direction it felt like going. The result is a double disc monster that, though it sometimes lags, is a pretty commendable addition to this ever growing and ever diversifying form of music.

Turn it on, tune it in, and drop it out right over here. Disc two is on the sidebar.