Band:	Jex Thoth
Album:	Blood Moon Rise
Style:	Psychedelic rock
Release date:	June 2013

01. To Bury
02. The Places You Walk
03. The Divide
04. Into A Sleep
05. And The River Ran Dry
06. Keep Your Weeds
07. Ehjä
08. The Four Of Us Are Dying [feat. JD Guy]
09. Psyar

There's been a slow but steady psychedelic revival in the past decade, both in metal and rock circles, much to this neo-hippie's content. Bands like Electric Moon, Samsara Blues Experiment, and even more extreme stuff like Oranssi Pazuzu and Black Meddle-era Nachtmystium have all been helping to give the sound a new, modern identity, with their own distinct twists on it. Another band within this recent trend, Jex Thoth, released their self-titled debut back in 2008, and now here they are 5 years later with quite a nice follow up, 2013's Blood Moon Rise.

Female-fronted psychedelic doom metal! That in itself should be enough of an alluring quality to pique interest in this release (*wink wink* male readers). The vocalist from whom the band takes its name almost comes across as a 21st century Grace Slick, with a beautiful voice that can stretch from quietly tender ("Into A Sleep," "Keep Your Weeds") to more energetic and pulsating, following along to the groove the tracks lay down ("The Places You Walk," "Ehjä"). In addition, Jex Thoth manage to blend the psychedelic and doom elements on Blood Moon Rise quite well, to a point that at many times it gets difficult to discern the former from the latter. There are heavy, "thick" tracks with unquestionable doom elements ("The Divide," "The Four Of Us Are Dying"), yet also ones that are more surreal and dreamlike ("Into a Sleep," "Psyar"), in an ode of sorts to classic psychedelia.

One of the best features of Blood Moon Rise, however, has to be in the spacing out of the track lengths. As one can see upon looking at their durations, there's a very nice balance of short and long tracks, much like a lot of classic psychedelic rock albums (Are You Experienced?, Electric Music For The Mind And Body, etc). Not only does Jex Thoth doing this somewhat reinforce their homage to the older bands within their style, but it also provides the listener with the choice of a quick and easy listen with the shorter tracks, or a more reflective, trippy experience with the longer ones, which is a clever approach.

For what it is, Blood Moon Rise is an excellent release, and quite a worthy contribution to the growing influence of psychedelia within the modern metal scene. But for some reason, it falls short in originality, and comes across as though Jex Thoth could have pushed themselves further in that direction. Much like the thrash revival bands, Jex Thoth have a lot of energy and great songwriting behind them, but their formula, as good as it is, is really nothing all that new. So, in short, if you're looking for the usual creatively schizophrenic music I recommend, you won't find it with Blood Moon Rise. But nevertheless, the album is a great release, and one that should definitely not go overlooked by any serious doom or psychedelic fan.