Band:	Church Of The Cosmic Skull
Album:	Everybody's Going To Die
Style:	Psychedelic rock
Release date:	November 29, 2019
Guest review by:	omne metallum

01. Fantasy
02. Don't You Believe In Magic?
03. Everybody's Going To Die
04. Do What You Want (With Love in Your Heart)
05. Into The Skull
06. Seven
07. The Hunt
08. The Great Black Hole
09. Sorcery & Sabotage
10. Living In A Bubble

I do believe in magic!

Here on their third album, Nottingham's own Church Of The Cosmic Skull release another slab of psychedelic prog rock that sounds like it could have come right out of the 1970s. With organs a-blazing and soaring harmonies throughout, you will find it hard not to get hooked from the start. A band who have the sound and song-writing down to a fine art, this album has it all.

Unlike most prog rock, the band manages to condense what usually takes twenty minutes to convey into three/four-minute packages that sound as full as a twenty-minute grandiose epic. This is a great secret weapon of the band, managing to satisfy both those who like prog and those that don't have the attention span. Take tracks like "The Great Black Hole", exactly three minutes in length yet covers all the bases you would expect in a song three times its length.

Songs such as "Don't You Believe In Magic", "Do What You Want (With Love In Your Heart)" and "Sorcery and Sabotage" are instant classics. Sounding timeless yet modern, they would fit in amongst greats like Yes or Emerson, Lake And Palmer with ease. The musicianship refrains from overtly long solos like many others in the genre, yet you are never given the feeling they aren't as talented as those that delve into solos longer than many of the tracks on this album.

The production is crisp and modern, with a retro sound that adds to the charm of the record. Each instrument has room to breathe without crowding anything out. The vocals fit the music perfectly, soft and reverent, but strong and kickass when they want to be. "Into The Skull" and the following "Seven" highlight these qualities, and allow for a loud/quiet motif that broadens the scope of this record.

If you have a complete aversion to the classic prog sound then this album will rub you up the wrong way; though not losing itself in its homage to those that influenced it, it doesn't separate itself enough if you strongly dislike the genre. If you are someone who wants to explore the genre but is put off by the duration of some songs, then this album serves as the perfect place to start, encapsulating the feel but keeping it short in duration.

If you haven't converted to the Church Of The Cosmic Skull yet, what are you waiting for? With this album the Church comes to you!